Thomas Hayward was born Thomas Albert Tibbett. He was the cousin of Lawrence Tibbett.
The lyric tenor made his debut with the New York City Opera in the fall of 1945, as Edmondo in Manon Lescaut, opposite Dorothy Kirsten
in the title role. In 1945 and 1946, he was also seen there as Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana and in Der Zigeunerbaron.
Soon after his City Opera debut, Hayward was first seen in his many appearances at the Metropolitan Opera, his debut being the part of
Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette. His more notable roles at the Met included the Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier, Alfred in Die
Fledermaus (with Hilde Güden and Virginia MacWatters), the title role in Faust, and the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto. His final opera at
that theatre was Mario Cavaradossi in Tosca, in 1957. In 1959, he returned to the City Opera, for Die Fledermaus, conducted by Julius
Rudel.
In 1963, Hayward appeared in a production by Sarah Caldwell, for the Boston Opera Group: Faust, with Beverly Sills and Norman Treigle.
He appeared with companies throughout the United States, and was often heard on the radio and seen on television.
Hayward's studio discography includes two recordings for CBS: Pagliacci (as Beppe, opposite Lucine Amara, Richard Tucker and Giuseppe
Valdengo, 1951) and Lucia di Lammermoor (as Lord Arturo Bucklaw, with Lily Pons and Tucker, 1954). Both albums were conducted by Fausto
Cleva.
In 1998, VAI published a compact disc of excerpts from a 1958 performance of La traviata, from New Orleans, with Kirsten and Cornell
MacNeil, which displays the voice in its prime.
In the mid-1960s, Hayward left New York for Dallas, where he began a successful second career as a pedagogue at Southern
Methodist University. Among his students were Fernando del Valle, Clifton Forbis, Timothy Jenkins and Gary Lakes.
He continued teaching in Dallas until the year before his death, when he and his wife moved to Nevada.
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