Plans & Other Plans

As general manager-elect of the Metropolitan Opera, smart, suave Rudolf Bing had been peering over the shoulders of retiring Manager Edward Johnson ever since the Met opened last November. This week he was all set to tell what he had seen, and what he was going to do about it. But before he could open his mouth, somebody else stole his headlines: famed Wagnerian Soprano Helen Traubel threatened to quit at the end of this season.

The reason, said her manager, was "the absence of any overtures from the Metropolitan Opera management" on her next season's contract. Said Rudi Bing: "The Metropolitan has never, to my knowledge, negotiated as early as January . . ." Even so, he said, he had already put a letter in the weekend mail inviting her to come in and talk about next season. To him, Traubel's action seemed "rather hasty and unfriendly." But perhaps there was another reason for it. One of the things Rudi Bing intended to tell the press this week was that Kirsten Flagstad would sing at the Met again next season. If Traubel, who has been singing the Wagnerian Ho-jo-to-hos in Flagstad's place for the past ten years, had guessed it, she might well have decided to "proceed with other plans."

A Well-Done 18 or 20. When Bing did get down to his own plans, he had some good news. In addition to signing Flagstad, he was cutting the repertory of the Met. Instead of a haphazardly done 26 operas or so, Bing wanted a well-done 18 or 20.

To insure more thorough rehearsing, he had been talking to the singers about spending more time at the Met. Most of them, he said, including Tenors Jussi Bjoerling and Set Svanholm, Sopranos Astrid Varnay and Dorothy Kirsten, Contraltos Blanche Thebom and Rise Stevens, "have already agreed to work with me . . ." He promised to "make every effort to find the best artists among Americans." But, said he, "where I cannot find them, I will bring in Europeans." Since Edward Johnson's casting assistant, Frank St. Leger, had turned in his resignation, Rudi Bing would do most of the casting himself.

A Better Aspect. To "broaden the basis of public support," he planned to put subscriptions within closer reach of opera lovers. For a first-class seat, instead of one series of 18 operas for $135, there would be two series of nine operas for $67.50 each. He hoped to attract more young people, and "since this young audience has more contemporary ideas on the visual aspects of operatic affairs," he hoped to introduce some more up-to-date production methods backstage.

He had one innovation for the pit: Bruno Walter would conduct performances of Beethoven's opera Fidelio, with Flagstad as Leonore.

Said Rudi Bing: "After all, since the Metropolitan is the greatest opera house in the world, it must have been run properly . . . But it must adapt its policy to changing times."

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