Editing Lawrence Tibbett (section)

==Biography==
Lawrence Tibbett was born Lawrence Mervil Tibbet (with a single final "t") on November 16, 1896, in Bakersfield, California.<ref name=MR>{{cite news|title=Musical History is Made By Unknown in New York Debut|date=January 5, 1925|newspaper=[[Mobile Register]]|location=Mobile, Alabama}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-08-10 |title=Made in Kern County: The Fox Theater |url=https://www.turnto23.com/news/made-in-kern-county/made-in-kern-county-the-fox-theater |access-date=2025-02-09 |website=KERO 23 ABC News Bakersfield |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=staff |first=BakersfieldNow |date=2017-07-28 |title=6 more to be inducted into Bakersfield Music Hall of Fame |url=https://bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/6-more-to-be-inducted-into-bakersfield-music-hall-of-fame |access-date=2025-02-09 |website=KBAK |language=en}}</ref> His father was a part-time deputy sheriff, killed in a shootout with outlaw Jim McKinney in 1903. Tibbett grew up in Los Angeles, earning money by singing in church choirs and at funerals. He graduated from [[Manual Arts High School]] in 1915. A year later, he met his future wife, Grace Mackay Smith, who rented a room in his mother's house.<ref name=MR /> During World War I, he served in the [[United States Merchant Marine|Merchant Marine]], after which he found employment singing as prologue to silent movies at the [[Sid Grauman|Grauman]] "[[Million Dollar Theater|Million Dollar" Theater]] in downtown Los Angeles.

Tibbett studied in New York City with [[Frank La Forge]] and in 1923 at the age of 26, he signed his first contract, for $60 per week, with the [[Metropolitan Opera]], using the name "Tibbett". The Met mistakenly added the extra "t" to his last name on his contract and he decided to keep the new spelling. Over the ensuing years, with the Met, he built a hugely successful career, displaying an outstanding voice, immaculate musicianship, and a strong stage presence.

His Met roles included Valentin in [[Charles Gounod]]'s ''[[Faust (opera)|Faust]]'', Silvio, and later, Tonio, in [[Ruggero Leoncavallo]]'s ''[[Pagliacci]]'' and the King's Herald in [[Richard Wagner]]'s ''[[Lohengrin (opera)|Lohengrin]]''. He first achieved national recognition playing Ford in [[Giuseppe Verdi]]'s ''[[Falstaff (opera)|Falstaff]]''.<ref name=MR /> Tibbett traveled to California in 1927 to sing the lead role in the [[List of Grove Plays|Grove Play]] ''St. Francis of Assisi'', and it was during that trip to San Francisco when he met ex-New Yorker Jennie Marston Burgard (daughter of New York banker [[Edgar L. Marston]]), whom he married in 1932.<ref>[[Andrew Farkas|Farkas, Andrew]]. ''Lawrence Tibbet, Singing Actor'', Hal Leonard Corporation, 1989, p. 85. {{ISBN|0931340179}}</ref> During the 1930s, Tibbett toured Europe and Australia, performing on stage or giving recitals in London, Paris, Prague and Vienna as well as in Sydney and Melbourne.

[[File:Lawrence Tibbett crop.jpg|thumb|left|Tibbett in 1939]]
Tibbett made his first recordings for the [[Victor Talking Machine Company]] in 1926. He recorded exclusively for Victor/[[RCA Victor Red Seal|RCA Victor]] for his entire career.
In the early 1930s, Tibbett also appeared in movies, after getting his start at [[Neely Dickson]]'s Hollywood Community Theater.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Wallace |first=Irving |date=October 1940 |title=Nurseries for Newcomers |url=https://archive.org/details/Modern-Screen-1940-10-Vol-21-No-5/page/26/mode/2up?q=%22neely+dickson%22 |journal=Modern Screen |volume=21 |issue=5 |pages=26-27 |via=The Internet Archive, archive.org}}</ref> His sojourn in Hollywood proved brief, although he was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Actor]] for his first film, ''[[The Rogue Song]]'', a 1930 [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] production with [[Laurel and Hardy]], shot in two-color [[Technicolor]] (only a few minutes of footage of the film, as well as the complete soundtrack, is known to survive today).<ref>Turner Classic Movies{{full citation needed|date=March 2024}}</ref> Soon after, he starred in another MGM musical film, ''[[New Moon (1930 film)|New Moon]]'', opposite [[Grace Moore]] and ''[[The Cuban Love Song]]'' (1931), with [[Lupe Vélez]]. In 1935, he appeared in ''[[Metropolitan (1935 film)|Metropolitan]]'' for [[20th Century-Fox]]. This film is notable for its extensive segments of Tibbett's performing operatic arias in a stage setting. He also starred in the film [[The Prodigal (1931 film)|''The Prodigal'']] in 1931 with Esther Ralston and Roland Young in which he sings "Without a Song." His final film was ''[[Under Your Spell]]'' in 1936. Also during the 1930s, Tibbett had a domestic radio program sponsored by the [[Packard Motor Car Company]] of America on which he sang formal music. The company chose him to announce the [[Packard 120]] to the world on air; he drove one. When the firm wanted to sell less expensive cars, they persuaded him to add [[American popular music|popular tunes]] to his repertoire in order to boost sales. He also appeared on ''[[Your Hit Parade]]''.

In 1936, with violinist [[Jascha Heifetz]], he founded the [[American Guild of Musical Artists]], the most important labor union for solo performing artists. He was the guild's proactive president for 17 years. His forceful and articulate advocacy of artistic causes was unique in its day.

In January 1937, during a rehearsal onstage at the Met for [[Richard Hageman]]'s opera ''Caponsacchi'', Tibbett accidentally stabbed a long-time member of the chorus, Joseph Sterzini, during a fight scene, causing a small wound in Sterzini's hand. Sterzini, who suffered from high blood pressure, died later that day.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1937/01/27/archives/singer-at-opera-stabbed-by-tibbett-in-accident-dies-sterzini-of.html|access-date=March 20, 2024|title=Singer at Opera, Stabbed by Tibbett in Accident Dies|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=January 27, 1937|pages=1, 6}} [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1937/01/27/94328657.pdf Facsimile]</ref>

After his operatic career concluded, Tibbett performed in musicals and plays in the early 1950s. He spent a summer in [[Summer stock theatre|stock]] as the Reverend Davidson in ''Rain'' and played Captain Hook in a short-lived tour of the [[John Burrell (theatre director)|John Burrell]] staging of ''Peter Pan'' that was mounted for [[Jean Arthur]] and featured a musical score by the young [[Leonard Bernstein]]. [[Veronica Lake]] played [[Peter Pan|Peter]]. Most notably, Tibbett took over the Italian operatic [[Bass (voice type)|bass]] [[Ezio Pinza]]'s role in ''[[Fanny (musical)|Fanny]]'' during its original run on Broadway.