On August 13th, 1966, Renata Tebaldi gave a concert with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Lewisohn Stadium. In the announced program, conducted by Lamberto Gardelli, Tebaldi sang arias from NOZZE DI FIGARO, OTELLO, AIDA, MEFISTOFELE, and CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA as well Rossini's "La Regata Veneziana". Her first two encores were songs by Tosti and Ponce.
Tebaldi then stunned her devoted fans with "If I Loved You" from CAROUSEL; it was the first time she had sung for them in English, and though she confused the song's lyrics, the response of the crowd was delirious.
A couple of weeks after the concert, I made my first solo trip to New York City to buy tickets for performances during the opening weeks of the new Met. Among the many people I met during that visit was David S, one of Tebaldi's most ardent admirers. He gave me a reel-to-reel copy of a tape he had made of Tebaldi's Lewisohn Stadium concert.
Many years later, when I was about to give up my reel-to-reel collection, I spent some time copying certain treasures onto cassette. Because the overall sound quality of the tape of the Tebaldi concert was pretty poor, I didn't bother to copy it. But I did save "If I Loved You", both because it was an iconic Tebaldi moment and also as a souvenir of one of my first New York friendships.