`Voice Of Firestone': A Name From The Past Returns Via Video

Any American family with any pretensions to culture wouldn't have thought of missing the ``Voice of Firestone'' telecasts which brought the great stars of opera into your very own home from 1949 to 1963.

And many baby-boomers got their first exposure to serious art through these shows, which invariably began with the rather saccharine theme song (``If I Could Tell You of My Devotion'') composed by Idabelle Firestone, not coincidentally the mother of tire-company CEO Harvey S. Firestone.

The tire company has since been swallowed by the Japanese tire manufacturer, Bridgestone. But you can still burn rubber on your VCR at home, because Video Artists International has released the first wave of red-hot videotapes of such artists as Licia Albanese, Jussi Bjoerling, Franco Corelli, Lisa Della Casa, Eileen Farrell, Nicolai Gedda, Jerome Hines, Dorothy Kirsten, George London, James McCracken, Lauritz Melchior, Robert Merrill, Anna Moffo, Birgit Nilsson, Jan Peerce, Roberta Peters, Leontyne Price, Rise Stevens, Teresa Stratas, Joan Sutherland, Renata Tebaldi, Helen Traubel, Richard Tucker, Cesare Valletti and Leonard Warren.

The historical value, the teaching value, of these tapes would be incalculable. But the entertainment value isn't hard at all to calculate: They're great fun.

Return with us now to those days of yesteryear, with Martin Bookspan narrating the introduction preceding each tape (including a then-futuristic ad for Firestone rubber products that now seems quaintly antiquated). Appreciate the little staged vignettes, as the artiste du jour roistered amongst gaily costumed choristers in the tavern scene, or brooded darkly by the balustrade during soulful arias.

The gowns! The hairstyles!

The singing!

Watch as legendary heldentenor Lauritz Melchior, attired in a jacket of unparalleled awfulness, croons ``One Enchanted Evening'' in his inimitable megavoice - a process rather like using a nuclear bomb to dispatch a single sparrow.

Listen as Richard Tucker shoves aside all other tenors' sissy readings of Don Jose with a ``Flower Song'' that demands Carmen's capitulation, and right away, too.

Observe a youthful, nubile Dame Joan Sutherland, stupendously bejeweled and becrowned and begowned, unleashing her amazing coloratura on a ``Les Huguenots'' aria.

And goggle at the tall, dark, and handsome Franco Corelli, in quasi-oriental garb for ``Turandot,'' as his thrilling tenor swoops to a pianissimo and back again. He's featured on a tape with soprano Renata Tebaldi, who doesn't seem quite sure what to do with her arms in those huge, white, over-the-elbow gloves divas adore, but who certainly does know what to do with a trio of delectable Puccini arias.

The ``Voice of Firestone'' was more than just singing; the programs were liberally salted and peppered with dance segments featuring such artists as Nureyev, Villella, Tallchief, and with such pop singers as Rosemary Clooney and Hildegarde (the legendary Edith Piaf even makes an appearance).

All this is immortalized on 485 kinescopes and 43 master radio tapes, in residence at the New England Conservatory - which licensed Video Artists International, Inc., to produce the current releases. They're all in black and white, and each tape costs $19.95-$29.95, depending on the length of the program (ordering info at 1-800-338-2566, fax 1-212-799-7768).

The company hasn't decided yet what to do about the radio broadcast tapes, dating from 1931 and containing performances by such artists as Nelson Eddy, Ezio Pinza and Lawrence Tibbett, though a series of compact discs has been discussed as a possibility.

In the meantime, more ``Voices of Firestone'' video releases are on the way this month, including performances by Robert Merrill, Roberta Peters, George London, Leontyne Price, Jeanette MacDonald, Anna Moffo, Eleanor Steber, an assortment of dancers, and the 25th anniversary show of 1953. Novelist Thomas Wolfe was wrong: You can go home again.