BING GONG

In his review of the Hampstead Theatre production of The Moderate Soprano ( JC, Nov 6), John Nathan states that Carl Ebert was Jewish. This is not correct. Ebert was the illegitimate son of an Irish-American music student (Mary Collins) and a Polish Count (Anton Potulicky). Ebert acquired his surname from the German couple who adopted him.

Of the triumvirate of German exiles that John Christie employed to launch the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, only Rudolf Bing was Jewish. Bing also played a crucial role in the founding of the Edinburgh Festival and was general manager of the New York Metropolitan Opera House for 22 years. Knighted by the Queen in 1971 for his services to the arts, Bing died in 1997, aged 95. Ian Murray Ilford, Essex.