No for Ilgenfritz

McNair Ilgrenfritz was a man of independent means (large real-estate holdings in Missouri) and a full-time music lover. He composed songs, piano pieces, ballets and operas (so far, not produced). For years he also held Box No. 1 at Manhattan's Metropolitan Opera. When Ilgrenfritz died last year at 66, he left a bequest: if the Met would perform one of his two operas (Le Passant, Phedre), the opera company would stand to get about $125,000 (TIME, Jan. 4).

The Met, which seldom looks a gift source in the mouth, took a long, hard look at Composer Ilgenfritz' operas and at its red-inked account books. Last week the board of directors announced its decision. The operas are competently written, said a spokesman, but "under the circumstances and as a matter of policy, the bequest should not be accepted."

Now, according to McNair Ilgenfritz' will, the offer will go, successively, to London's Covent Garden, Sadler's Wells, the Paris Opera, the Paris Opera-Comique, and the opera houses of Monte Carlo, Nice and Brussels. If, after 21 years, none accepts the bequest, the money will go to a memorial foundation to build a concert hall in Newport, R.I., where Ilgenfritz used to spend his summers.

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