[tru blu]

…been on a classical-music jag of late, and this is the piece that started it. Swedish tenor…kinda drank himself into bad health and died waaaayyyyy back in 1960. I'd never heard of him until a friend passed me the LP with this performance on it. I consider opera one of my deaf spots, but this kicked in instantly…like the cats say, 'if ya' don't know, now ya' know'…I have since bought several LPs…
 
 

 

[TCM]

http://www.jussibjorlingsociety.org/media.html
http://www.jussibjorlingsallskapet.com/
 
 

 

[kiteki]

 
It kept my attention for the entire 6 minutes and 50 seconds.
 
 
 

 

[SteveA]

My mom was a big fan and I grew up on a steady diet of him along with all the classic opera.  This was all played on a Zenith mono console with tube amplification and Cobra arm.

 

[liuzerus87]

The 1956 recording of Puccini's La Boheme with Bjorling, Victoria de los Angeles and Thomas Beecham is one of the most magical opera recordings of all time. A decent number of fans still consider this THE definitive recording of La Boheme despite it being more than 50 years old.

 

[SgtPepper]

I first heard Adelaide off of The Very Best of Jussi Bjorling from EMI Classics. Highly recommended compilation.
 
Bjorling, Caruso, Gigli. The Holy Trinity of tenors, IMO. 

 

[tru blu]

 
Quote:

I first heard Adelaide off of The Very Best of Jussi Bjorling from EMI Classics. Highly recommended compilation.

 
My virgin discovery of the piece is EMI, too: The Art of Jussi Bjoerling, Vol. 1, which I'd also recommend highly. It's songs, oratorio and arias, whereas Vol. 2 (I also picked that up; also excellent) is all arias ("Nessun Dorma" and the like). I also acquired a disc of operatic duets between Björling and baritone Robert Merrill. Everyone talks about the "Pearl Fishers" pairing from Bizet ("Les pêcheurs de perles"), which I dig, but what really knocks me out is "Solenne in quest'ora" ("Swear to me, in this solemn hour") from Verdi's "The Force Of Destiny". It's probably because the bass makes it sound like they're riffing on a backbeat…guess I'm still a jazz/blues guy at heart…