With incandescent performances from the principal singers, orchestra and conductor, this February 1938 live broadcast of Verdi’s Otello documents the interwar Metropolitan Opera at its peak. Giovanni Martinelli, for whom Otello became his signature legacy, portrays his rôle of lover, madman and penitent murderer so completely that each component authenticates the impact of the others. Lawrence Tibbett, the first and most complete in a line of distinguished American Verdi baritones, is as impressive for his insinuating mezza voce phrases as for the drinking-song. The German soprano Elisabeth Rethberg, a Met mainstay in both German and Italian rôles, was greatly admired for her purity of legato and tone.