 Tibbett's Iago, opposite Giovanni Martinelli's Otello, was a legendary New York pairing. In the pit, Ettore Panizza was himself a supreme Verdi interpreter, and his orchestra, mainly Italian, was a powder keg. Verdi and Boito give Iago something Shakespeare does not, a soliloquy on evil. Here's Tibbett in live performance at the Met in 1938.