Word: tibbetts
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...lester in the role of the wealthy burgher Ford. In the second act Ford sang his famous monologue E sogne? a realta? and shortly made his exit. As the orchestra launched into the music of the act's second scene, the audience began chanting an unfamiliar name: "Tibbett! Tibbett! Tib-bett!" Conductor Tullio Serafin waved his orchestra to silence and through the gold curtain stepped a slim young man with a putty-shaped nose to acknowledge an ovation that stopped the opera for 20 minutes...
That night in 1925 marked the beginning of Baritone Lawrence Tibbett's operatic career-although for the rest of the season he was to continue in minor roles because he had not yet had time to learn major ones. A large (6 ft. 1 in., 200 Ibs.), imposing man, Tibbett had a big, bronzelike, dramatically eloquent voice that combined ringing power with remarkable agility, which he liked to demonstrate for friends by singing through entire operas, assuming not only the baritone but the tenor parts as well. Moreover, Tibbett was one of the few opera stars whose acting ability...
Booming Voice. In a career that spanned more than a quarter-century, Tibbett ranged through more than 70 roles. He was never a leading Wagnerian, instead concentrated on the great baritone roles of the Italian repertory: lago in Otello, the elder Germont in Traviata, Scarpia in Tosca, Amonasro in A'ida. For Tibbett the Met scheduled rarely performed operas such as Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, and it was Tibbett, a longtime champion of English-language opera, who created the baritone roles in such contemporary American operas as Deems Taylor's The King's Henchman and Peter...
...Tibbett was that rarest of opera stars, a singer born and trained in the U.S., with no European experience. The son of a Bakersfield, Calif, sheriff who was killed in a gun battle with bandits, Tibbett grew up in Los Angeles, sang in the high school glee club, earned small fees singing at funerals. After serving in World War I, he embarked on a professional acting career, but soon found himself singing the musical prologues to silent films at Hollywood's old Grauman Theater. On borrowed money he traveled to New York, auditioned for the Met twice before...
...from the start, Your Hit Parade was a hit. Just by playing the country's top tunes-first on the radio (15 years), then on television (9 years)-the American Tobacco Co. sold so many cigarettes that it even produced a new brand: Hit Parade. Lannie Ross, Lawrence Tibbett, Frank Sinatra, Noel Coward, Fred Astaire, W. C. Fields all marched on the show with such regulars as Dorothy Collins and Snooky Lanson. Then came rock 'n' roll. The sort of stuff that Elvis sings began to lead the Parade, and American Tobacco apparently decided that kids...