You're Fired

Popularity has come with a rush to Brooklyn's Robert Merrill. Since his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1945, he has become one of the company's leading baritones. At 32, he is also a hit on records, radio and TV (Your Show of Shows). Last week Merrill's popularity got him in trouble. He became the first singer in Met memory to be fired during the season.

His offense: bucketing out to Hollywood to make a movie called Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick when he should have been 1) singing Figaro in the season's last performance of The Barber of Seville, and 2) joining the rest of the Met company on its spring tour of 13 cities which starts this week.

To the Met's General Manager Rudolf Bing, that was a "coldblooded contract breach"--and a glittering example of the Met-comes-last attitude that he has determined to stamp out. In addition to firing Merrill ("for good"), Bing let Hollywood and TV know the correct billing for the Brooklyn baritone: "Formerly of the Metropolitan Opera."

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