Rome's operagoers remember Giuseppe Di Stefano as the handsome young tenor who sang Manon one night when terrible-tempered Tenor Lauri-Volpi fitfully refused to go on. But even before that, Di Stefano had gotten ovations that reached the ears of U.S. booking agents.
Last week, Manhattan got its first chance to hear dashing, 26-year-old Di Stefano. New York's Italian opera fans, a demonstrative lot, were out in strength. As the Duke in Verdi's Rigoletto, Giuseppe's soaring tenor was always good, if not always golden; and he had a dramatic way of hanging on to his ringing top notes until the claque started....
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