New grounds for divorce... Opera

What a shallow existence.

SID R. BASS, the billionaire investor, certainly did not give the impression of an unhappy husband on the night of Sept. 26, when he attended the black-tie opening of “Anna Bolena” at the Metropolitan Opera. Whenever a photographer took a picture of his wife of nearly 23 years, Mercedes T. Bass, the philanthropist and fashion plate whose name appears on the Met’s Grand Tier, Mr. Bass was there by her side, his white pocket square complementing her Oscar de la Renta dress.

Though it was not entirely obvious that night, there was a message in their harmonious appearance together, even as Mr. and Mrs. Bass were finalizing the details of their impending divorce, which had been rumored for months and would be announced the following week. In a joint statement to The Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Oct. 6, the couple said they had “mutually agreed to end their marriage” and that they “continue to love each other and remain good friends.” It was all very amicable, you know.

“They were putting out there to the public that it is O.K.,” said David Patrick Columbia, who reported the possibility of a Bass split in December on New York Social Diary, the online chronicler of gilded soirées, “and that they are O.K.”

Peculiar as the grounds for divorce may sound, the story is that Mr. Bass, 69 and a resident of Fort Worth, had taken up painting and had tired of the social circuit, the longtime domain of Mrs. Bass, 67, who is the vice chairwoman of the Metropolitan Opera and one of its biggest financial supporters. Mr. Bass, it is said by friends of the couple, never really liked opera.

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