Limmie Pulliam performing the title role in The Ordering of Moses with the Oberlin Orchestra and Oberlin choirs at Carnegie Hall in January 2023. / Photo credit: Fadi Kheir

Last month Parterre Box was sad to hear of the death of beloved tenor Limmie Pulliam. Since re-launching his career in the early 2020s, he enjoyed particular success in the most challenging spinto repertoire.

“Pulliam’s meltingly lyrical tone must be among the most beautiful in the business,” said Cameron Kelsall about Pulliam’s Radames in a performance with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra last year, “and if he was not the most thrilling actor onstage, he compensated with sincerity and tireless stamina.” The late Patrick Mack, of Pulliam’s Manrico in LA in 2021, similarly added that “when he launched into ‘Di quella pira,’ taking the first two phrases in one breath, it was one of the most exciting experiences I’ve ever had in the theater.”

Today’s Grand Tier Grab Bag pays tribute to a beloved, if underutilized, artist with some of the Verdi Requiem from a performance in Leipzig recorded in 2024. Pulliam’s conductor here, Franz Welser-Möst, recently brought his reading of the Verdi Requiem to Carnegie Hall last fall.

Verdi: Messa da Requiem, “Ingemisco”