NY Times, 7/24/03 -
   Donor's Estate Sues Metropolitan Opera
   By ROBIN POGREBIN

   Representatives of a Texas oil heiress regarded as the
   Metropolitan Opera's greatest individual donor are suing the
   Met to recover millions of dollars that they say the opera house
   used against the woman's artistic wishes.  The heiress, Sybil
   B. Harrington, who died in 1998, had specified that her money
   be used to underwrite traditional productions of standard operatic
   fare.  But a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in Amarillo, Tex., accuses
   the Metropolitan of misusing $5 million she gave when it televised
   a nontraditional production of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" in
   2001.

   The lawsuit also accuses the Met of diverting $34 million of Mrs.
   Harrington's money to cover costs that had nothing to do with the
   production of traditional operas.

Full article at: http://tinyurl.com/hxb1

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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