MUSIC

Sir Rudolf Bing, the former head of the Metropolitan Opera, is too ill to make rational decisions, says a judge who appointed an attorney to handle his affairs and barred his new wife from spending any more of his money. New York state judge Arthur Blyn named attorney Paul C. Guth to oversee Bing’s $900,000 estate. Blyn found that Bing, 85, “is afflicted with senile brain degeneration, or Alzheimer’s disease” and can’t make rational decisions or care for his property. Guth charged that Bing had come under the “complete domination” of Carroll Douglass, whom he apparently met last May and married last month in Virginia, 1 1/2 weeks after Guth filed his petition. Blyn ordered the papers in the case sealed last week but the Associated Press obtained a copy. Blyn denied Guth’s request for a hearing on the validity of the marriage between Bing and Douglass but said the lawyer could try to get it annulled in Virginia. The judge did bar Douglass from spending Bing’s money or incurring debts in his name.