MUSIC

The strange case of Sir Rudolf Bing took a new turn over the weekend as New York papers revealed that the ailing opera impresario’s new wife was declared mentally unstable five years ago. Carroll Douglass, 47, married Bing, 85 and suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, three days before a New York judge froze Bing’s assets and appointed an attorney to manage his fortune. But in 1982, a District of Columbia court granted Douglass’ brother and sister authority to manage her affairs after finding that she had “acquired a romantic and unreasonable fixation” on the Pope, wrote a $70,000 check payable to “His Holiness for Polish Project” and tried to buy Rolls-Royces for the Pope’s use. Contacted in Anguilla by the New York Times, Douglass said Bing is in good health and his memory for opera is intact. “He is from time to time a little bit forgetful, and he does often ask what day it is,” she said. “When we’re going to sleep at night, I will look over and see that he’s conducting himself, singing ‘Fledermaus’ or Strauss. He remembers these things.”