We were ripping programs and tossing them down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  When she took the high A at the end on "AMOOOOOORE"..a friend was so aghast, he hit me in the ribs and I almost fell to the standing room floor!!!!!!! You could not imagine what it was like!!!!!!

    January 31, 1955. Weather like New York last week. A teenager wakes up at 4:00 and arrives at the Met at 6:00 for his first Otello,featuring the debut of the lady whose birthday (then unkown to us) was Feb.1. The teen enters a telephone booth (remember them?). A cop asks him what he is doing there.The guy says, "Waiting for the opera tonight." Shortly, another group of nutcases get on the standee line, to freeze until 7:00P.M..
       Feb.1, 1955..about 12:00 and out comes the lady who became our "madre" and in freezing cold weather,signed every single program, and it was her 33rd birthday!!!
  So you understand why Feb.1 means so much to me and to those who were privileged to have this incredible lady..on and off stage..as a "buddy" in our teen years.
      Bless your memory, dearest Renata Tebaldi. You will remain forever in our hearts!!                                     
                                                    Charlie