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e listed in the opening credits.) Excerpt from Mary Jane Phillips-Matz's book: In 1954 Leonard Warren spent part of his spring and summer in the studio with Willard Sektberg, learning a new work that was unlike anything he had done before. This was The Lamentation of Saul by Norman Dello Joio, which was written for Warren. Dello Joio said that he took his text from "David", a play by D.H. Lawrence. "Actually the play was given to me by Lawrence's widow, Frieda. She had come to Tanglewood, where we heard a concert together. She gave me the play, hoping I would make an opera out of it. I toyed with the idea; but it presented too many problems. The drama itself was basically about David, but I was more interested in Saul. I was intrigued with the role that Lawrence gave him in the play, and even while I composed The Lamentation of Saul, I had the opera in mind." Dello Joio recalled his first meeting with Warren: "I liked the quality of his voice. that's what drew me to him, especially when he sang Rigoletto. I also liked him in Otello. I admired his singing very much because the voice was so full and so masculine and so true in terms of intonation. I also understood his lyrics when he sang. At the time I was also a friend of Roy Leifflen, Leonard's brother-in-law. Then there came the period when I was doing the Metropolitan opera Saturday afternoon intermission features, and on one of those broadcasts I met Leonard and interviewed him. From then on we became close friends. The composer said Warren was fascinated with the idea of singing the score at first sight. Dello Joio knew Warren couldn't read music, but that made no difference at all. Leonard studied and rehearsed it alone and with Willard Sektberg. When he had it under his belt, we did the first sit-down together. At that first rehearsal, he was so excited about listening to my accompaniment that at the end of his entrance he sang a B♭, a tone so high it sometimes even posed problems for tenors. He got so excited that instead of singing a high E♭ he sang a high B♭. The composer was stunned. The world premiere was presented under the auspices of the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Memorial Festival (now known as South Mountain Concerts) in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. (The work had been commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation to Mrs. Coolidge's birthday.)