The voice of angel

It was a publicist's invention (based on a musical request from Toscanini), but it WAS true. Hers was one of the most beautiful and exciting voices to be heard on any stage or recording and it was in tribute to her that many fans, friends and colleagues met at Alice Tully Hull last night.

Anna Moffo hosted and there were reminiscences by Marilyn Horne, Roberta Peters, Jon Vickers (on tape), Rudolph Giuliani, Christopher Raeburn and Aprile Millo. Carlo Bergonzi spoke (translated by Moffo) and then offered a sung tribute of the Schubert Ave Maria, in which he showed flashes of the old voice and legato (but it would have been better had he learned the words). There were other live performances by Wendy Bryn Harmer, Anthony Dean Griffey and most notably a beautiful D'amore sull'ali rosee by Sandra Radvanovsky.

But the highlight was, as it should have been, Tebaldi. There were a generous number film clips of performances, some of which hadn't been seen or heard for some time (including a wonderful clip from a Peace day tribute in 1958 at the U.N. General Assembly with Leonard Bernstein conducting her in Pace, Pace mio Dio and Donde lieta uscì). The sound of these and her voices were amazingly vivid. Anyone who thinks that Tebaldi was not an actress and just made beautiful sounds needs just to watch her face to see her comittment and joy in expressing herself in music. Listen to the way she forms and understands the text and the emotion behind the words. Her gestures may have been a times a bit stitled, but behind every note was the full force and meaning of what she was singing.

I never heard her live, she retired from the operatic stage the year I heard my first Met performance, but I have always lived and enjoyed her performances. I met her once, a day I'll never forget that day. It was Dec. 13, 1995 and early that morning I'd heard that Nancy LaMott, a singer I much admired and loved, had died. Tebaldi was signing copies of a biography at the HMV store on Fifth Avenue and I waited on line for a few hours to see her. She looked radiant and beautiful, just as I'd seen her in many a photograph and she greeted every one of her fans with grace and charm, obviously touched that so many had come out to see her.

The tribute last night ended with a film of the opening of the last act of Otello, the role which opened and closed her Met career. As the end of the Ave Maria trailed off and she lay down to her rest, I was wrecked. We shall not see her like again soon.