For 22 years Sir Rudolf Bing ran a great opera house as if it were his own home. Of sharp tongue and sharper mind, Sir Rudolf tended to every detail at New York City's Metropolitan Opera -- planning the season's repertoire, hiring (and firing) conductors, checking the seamstresses as they worked on costumes. And the divas! Bing did not suffer singers gladly, and prided ) himself on his ability to control prima donnas, cajoling Montserrat Caballe or flaying Maria Callas with equally imperious vigor. In the years immediately following his retirement as general manager in 1972, Bing could still be spotted...
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