The Emperor Tibbett
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Charles-François Gounod, Giacomo Puccini, Jules (Emile Frédéric) Massenet, Richard Wagner, Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Giuseppe Verdi, Franz Lehár, Umberto Giordano, Louis Gruenberg, (Joseph) Deems Taylor
Label: Pearl
Magazine Review Date: 3/1991
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 137
Mastering:
Mono
ADD
Catalogue Number: GEMMCDS9452

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(The) Emperor Jones |
Louis Gruenberg, Composer
Louis Gruenberg, Composer |
(The) King's Henchman |
(Joseph) Deems Taylor, Composer
(Joseph) Deems Taylor, Composer |
Rigoletto, Movement: ~ |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
(Anonymous) Orchestra Alexander Smallens, Conductor Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Lawrence Tibbett, Baritone |
(Un) ballo in maschera, '(A) masked ball', Movement: ~ |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
(Anonymous) Orchestra Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Lawrence Tibbett, Baritone Nathaniel Shilkret, Conductor |
Falstaff, Movement: ~ |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
(Anonymous) Orchestra Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Lawrence Tibbett, Baritone |
(Il) trovatore, Movement: ~ |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
(Anonymous) Orchestra Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Lawrence Tibbett, Baritone |
Simon Boccanegra, Movement: Suona ogni labbro il mio nome |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Elisabeth Rethberg, Soprano Ettore Panizza, Conductor Ezio Pinza, Bass Giovanni Martinelli, Tenor Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Lawrence Tibbett, Baritone Leonard Warren, Baritone New York Metropolitan Opera Chorus New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra |
Simon Boccanegra, Movement: Oh de' Fieschi implacata |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Elisabeth Rethberg, Soprano Ettore Panizza, Conductor Ezio Pinza, Bass Giovanni Martinelli, Tenor Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Lawrence Tibbett, Baritone Leonard Warren, Baritone New York Metropolitan Opera Chorus New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra |
Simon Boccanegra, Movement: Plebe! Patrizi! |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Elisabeth Rethberg, Soprano Ettore Panizza, Conductor Ezio Pinza, Bass Giovanni Martinelli, Tenor Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Lawrence Tibbett, Baritone Leonard Warren, Baritone New York Metropolitan Opera Chorus New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra |
Simon Boccanegra, Movement: ~ |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Elisabeth Rethberg, Soprano Ettore Panizza, Conductor Ezio Pinza, Bass Giovanni Martinelli, Tenor Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Lawrence Tibbett, Baritone Leonard Warren, Baritone New York Metropolitan Opera Chorus New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra |
Otello, Movement: ~ |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Alessio de Paolis, Tenor Ettore Panizza, Conductor Giovanni Martinelli, Tenor Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Lawrence Tibbett, Baritone New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra |
Otello, Movement: Era la notte (Dream) |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Alessio de Paolis, Tenor Ettore Panizza, Conductor Giovanni Martinelli, Tenor Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Lawrence Tibbett, Baritone New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra |
Tosca, Movement: Tre sbirri (Te Deum) |
Giacomo Puccini, Composer
Giacomo Puccini, Composer Giulio Setti, Conductor Lawrence Tibbett, Baritone New York Metropolitan Opera Chorus New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra |
Tosca, Movement: ~ |
Giacomo Puccini, Composer
(Anonymous) Orchestra Giacomo Puccini, Composer Lawrence Tibbett, Baritone |
(Il) Tabarro, '(The) Cloak', Movement: ~ |
Giacomo Puccini, Composer
(Anonymous) Orchestra Giacomo Puccini, Composer Lawrence Tibbett, Baritone |
Pagliacci, 'Players', Movement: Si può? (Prologue) |
Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Composer
(Anonymous) Orchestra Lawrence Tibbett, Baritone Rosario Bourdon, Conductor Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Composer |
Andrea Chénier, Movement: ~ |
Umberto Giordano, Composer
(Anonymous) Orchestra Lawrence Tibbett, Baritone Umberto Giordano, Composer |
Hérodiade, Movement: ~ |
Jules (Emile Frédéric) Massenet, Composer
(Anonymous) Orchestra Jules (Emile Frédéric) Massenet, Composer Lawrence Tibbett, Baritone |
Faust, Movement: ~ |
Charles-François Gounod, Composer
(Anonymous) Orchestra Charles-François Gounod, Composer Lawrence Tibbett, Baritone Nathaniel Shilkret, Conductor |
Tannhäuser, Movement: ~ |
Richard Wagner, Composer
(Anonymous) Orchestra Lawrence Tibbett, Baritone Nathaniel Shilkret, Conductor Richard Wagner, Composer |
(The) Rogue Song, Movement: The white dove |
Franz Lehár, Composer
(Anonymous) Orchestra Franz Lehár, Composer Lawrence Tibbett, Baritone Nathaniel Shilkret, Conductor |
Author: Alan Blyth
The extracts from Act 2 of a 1941 Met performance of Otello are also compelling. Both these sets of excerpts appeared on Pearl's two-LP issue devoted to Tibbett, and the whole of Otello is also available on CD ((CD) GEMMCD9267). Now I have heard the even more notable 1938 Met Otello on a recent CD reissue (Music and Arts/Harmonia Mundi—to be reviewed later), which shows that both Martinelli and Tibbett (particularly the tenor) had vocally deteriorated in the three years intervening between the two accounts. None the less, the 1941 reading catches much of the concentration and subtlety in both singers' interpretations.
The rest is a bit of a rag-bag in varying sound. It's ingenuous of Pearl to imply some of their tracks have only just come to light as all are listed in the 1977-8 Record Collector discography and have been heard before. Of the Verdi items the most important, the unpublished Victor ''Cortigiani'' of 1936 has, unfortunately, been rendered worthless by being transferred a tone too high. The broadcast of Ford's Monologue (Falstaff) would be more valuable if we hadn't been given the previously unpublished 1926 performance by RCA on a comparatively recent CD (3/90), in superior sound. That disc also has a better transfer of Tibbett's finely phrased and moving ''Eri tu?''.
Tibbett created the title-role in The Emperor Jones. To judge from the finale at the start of the first CD and the studio-made extract on the RCA disc it must have been a stupendously histrionic achievement, but the piece itself is not up to much musically. He also created King Eadgar in
The final item, ''The white dove'' by Lehar, demonstrates Tibbett's soft-grained voice and control of dynamics at their most beguiling when he was at the peak of his career: here Victor caught his voice to perfection. Inevitably there is some overlap with the RCA disc, where the transfers are more smoothly done. Tibbett admirers will want both—and perhaps Pearl's earlier disc ((CD) GEMMCD9307). Anyone who starts to listen to his records will surely not be content with one disc, but will want much more, he was undoubtedly one of the century's greatest baritones.'
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