Identity area
Reference code
Beaton/D/1/6/17
Unique identifier
Title
Date(s)
- 12 April 1965 (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
2p paper
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Opera impresario. General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, 1950 - 1972.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Typescript letter, in which Bing expresses his consternation with respect to the revised bid proposed by Barbara Karinska for the creation of the 'La Traviata' costumes. After a period of 'simplifying', Karinska has reduced her bid from one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars to one hundred and seven thousand dollars, approximately seven hundred dollars per costume. Bing states that he is both unwilling and unable to pay that. Never in the history of the Metropolitan has anything even approached the amount that has been suggested for this one production. Bing is aware that Beaton's designs deserve careful and considerate execution, but he had estimated a total cost of sixty thousand for the costumes and asks Beaton to therefore contact Karinska to discuss the necessary changes that would need to be made for a thirty or thirty-five thousand dollar reduction in the price.