This is Tibbett very near the end. The insouciant brilliance, the flash and spontaneity of his great years had flown with the collapse that followed his vocal crisis of 1941. But he at least recovered some of his tonal steadiness, and adjusted to roles of a more character-baritone nature with some success. Here, he has trouble when he tries to withhold the volume in the upper-middle range, and resorts to a straight-tone parlando at a couple of points. But from his first utterances, we know we are in the presence of a towering vocal personality. He negotiates the “We live and let live” sequence with a good measure of the old authority, and when he responds to Ellen’s despair at the end with “We have the power/we have the power,” we are left with the assurance of the artist who knows he must simply intone the words on the pitch to leave us with the chill of the moment. It was at the end of this performance that the cast gathered for a surprise onstage celebration of his twenty-fifth anniversary with the company.

˜ ˜ ˜

NEXT TIME: On Friday, June 12, I’ll return us to the more or less present day with consideration of recent recordings (one video, one audio-only) of two standard-repertory masterpieces, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Gounod’s Faust, in versions that restore much original material that is omitted from their commonly performed editions.

In the meantime, though, watch for a mini-post announcing details of a music-and-discussion event centered on the work of George Gershwin that I’ll be participating in before the next post. Details to follow.

Be well, all.

# # #

.