Anonymous wrote:Carreras has cancer and still outlived Pav.

Did not know that Carreras has cancer. I always thought he was the weak link among the three tenors.

Carreras has cancer and still outlived Pav.

OP here: Thanks to the PPs' who commented. Glad that you liked it. Was not sure when I posted whether there would be any interest.

I wonder when we will see another Jussi Bjorling!

On a different note, there are many who recall the memorable aria in the Shawshank Redemption when Andy locked himself in the library and played it on the loudspeaker system in the prison.

Red - played by Morgan Freeman - said about the recording that was played:

"I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fwSNMibfaRg

The aria is from Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro". It has nothing to do with freedom even though Red was speaking figuratively. It was certainly one of those moments in that movie that one does not forget.

Thanks OP. I really enjoyed listening to all of these. And Bjorling was clearly the ultimate tenor. His performance was beautiful and sounded so effortless.

Anonymous wrote:Finally, here is a Bjorling singing Bizet's "The Pearl Fishers" duet with Robert Merrill - the finest rendition that I have heard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdb94HbyRko&feature=player_embedded

This one was beautiful.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks OP!

+1

Thanks OP!

No one sleeps . . .

Love me some nessun dorma.

Love! Thanks for posting, OP! Nessun Dorma is one of my all-time faves.

Not sure how much interest there will be but here are some great tenors singing Puccini's "Nessun Dorma".

My favorite tenor without a doubt is Jussi Bjorling -the great Swedish tenor - who incidentally was someone that Pavorotti viewed as the ultimate tenor. Pavorotti when he was compared to Bjorling, remarked that a Pavorotti comes every decade or so but a Bjorling appears only every 100 years. On another occasion when the comparison was made, he said "don't compare me to Bjorling, I am only human."

Caruso's widow said of Bjorling that he was the closest that any tenor came in relation to her husband.

Only Domingo is still alive.

Jussi Bjorling:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJnG0clxn-M

Pavorotti:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VATmgtmR5o4

Domingo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GucXt7eaWRI

Some other great tenors:

Franco Corelli:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bvj6ML1xvM

Gigli:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru8Lf_SAPIo

Finally, here is a Bjorling singing Bizet's "The Pearl Fishers" duet with Robert Merrill - the finest rendition that I have heard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdb94HbyRko&feature=player_embedded