Word: binges
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Moreover, he does it on a nonsubsi-dized budget ($10 million for this sea son), which, he proudly points out, "I have never failed to meet within 1 %, and that always on the plus side." Another considerable profit flowing from Bing's careful planning comes in the form of singers' appreciation. They get their Met contracts set months and even seasons in advance; this enables them to schedule outside performances with confidence. No other opera house offers such service...
...designers of the caliber of Garson Kanin, Tyrone Guthrie, Alfred Lunt and Cecil Beaton, who were imaginative if not daring. And he has at least reduced the incidence of love duets between a bandy-legged tenor and an overstuffed loveseat of a so prano; only the tones, Bing discreetly has hinted, should be pear-shaped. Significantly, wardrobe mistresses at the Met report that over a few short years the average size of the women's costumes shrank from...
...opera. He took one look at the opera's anemic ballet troupe and got Antony Tudor in as ballet master. The Met's ballet is still nothing to dance in the streets about, but at least it is on its toes. (Years ago a secretary explained to Bing that ballerinas who got too old to dance became secretaries at the Met. "Curious," murmured Bing. "I thought it was the other way around...
Preaching that an appearance on the Met stage is a unique honor, Bing insisted that the principal singers-who in the past were repeatedly lured away by the more lucrative concert circuit-either sign up for a longer season or none at all. The public responded in kind; in Bing's 16-year tenure, the Met season has expanded from 18 to 31 weeks, and the number of subscribers has grown from 5,000 to 17,000, with another 3,000 waiting longingly in line to get into a house that was 97% sold out last season...
...gets top talent because Bing is there first, though not always with the most; a few houses, for example in Chicago and San Francisco, in the past have offered principal singers more for a performance; but now the Met's top of $4,000 is on a par with most houses'. Though the state-subsidized houses of Europe do well to schedule a singer a month before a performance, Efficiency Whiz Bing already has most of his 1969 season all booked...