I remember the pearl clutchers making a non-scandal scandal when this production premiered. So tame now, really. (I saw Malfitano as Cio-Cio San in San Francisco the summer before the reopening of the War Memorial Opera House. She was incredible.)
I heard him at NYCO. He was not yet who he was to become. A few years later i heard him in Chicago. The voice had doubled in size and sounded so italian. He had a great career.