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 By Sanche de Gramont



Leonard Warren, leading baritone of the Metropolitan Opera, died last night on the stage where he had sung for more than twenty years.

The forty-nine-year-old singer collapsed as he was ending the second act of Verdi's "La Forza del Destino." He fell forward as he was making his exit at 10:05 p.m., and twenty-five minutes later the house physician pronounced him dead, victim of a stroke.

There was an awesome moment as the singer fell. The rest of the cast remained paralyzed. Finally some one in the capacity audience called out "For God's sake, ring [sic] down the curtain."

The curtain came down, ambulances were called, and a member of the cast tried mouth-to-mouth respiration. A priest arrived to administer the last rites to the singer, who was a recent convert to Roman Catholicism.

Members of the staff who came from the stage weeping announced the the opera star was dead.

The news was met with hushed consternation by many in the opera house who had come backstage after the curtain was lowered.

In the audience were many critics who came to hear Mr. Warren and Renata Tebaldi, making her first appearance this year. Mr. Warren was acknowledged to be the world's best dramatic baritone. He had a repertoire of twenty-six operatic roles.

A member of the Metropolitan staff said Mr. Warren had appeared in perfect health when he came to sing last night.

At the time he collapsed, Mr. Warren had just finished the aria "O fatal pages of my destiny." He was singing the role of Don Carlo in the opera, set in Italy and Spain, and was dressed in the colorful uniform of a Spanish grenadier. The opera has a tragic ending in which Don Carlo is killed by an erstwhile friend.

The surgeon, in the opera, played by Roald Reitan, a baritone, sings to Mr. Warren: "E salvo (He's well).

Mr. Warren responds: "E salvo, e salvo, O gioia. (He's saved, he's saved, O joy.")

He turned to his left, and prepared to make his exit, which ends the act, and collapsed. Some thought he had Continued on page 4, column 4