Description:
in a performance of La Forza del Destino with Tebaldi, Leonard Warren was about to launch the vigorous cabaletta to Don Carlo's aria, which begins Morir, tremenda cosa ("to die, a momentous thing"), he started coughing at the stage and gasping. His final words were "Help me, help me!" and he pitched face-forward down to the floor. A few minutes later he was pronounced dead of a massive cerebral vascular hemorrhage, and the rest of the performance was canceled. Warren was only forty-eight.