Anyone that is a fan of tenors, let alone opera, needs to know about Jussi Björling, and I am more than happy to promote him to anyone that will listen.

To this day, Jussi Björling is thought of as one of the top voices the world has ever had to offer. Most tenor fans consider him to be the main tenor of the mid 1900's.  A headliner for years at the Met, Covent Garden and most of the main opera houses around the world, he had a singing style that was one of the most distinct of all time.  As a big Pavarotti fan, I especially like this quote attributed to him:

"When I'm about to train a new opera, I first listen to how Jussi Björling did it. His voice was unique and it's his path that I want to follow. I would more than anything else wish that people compared me with Jussi Björling. It's like so I'm striving to sing" - Pavarotti.

Enrico Caruso's widow officially named him as the only tenor of the time worthy enough to take on Caruso's mantle.  Keep in mind this was when other greats like DelMonaco and DiStefano were on the scene, and it was also right at the end of Gigli's career - all of them great Italian tenors themselves.  In a list of top voices of the century he was named as one of the top three  (I think that was in Opera Magazine, which I am sure you all have subscriptions to).

I am sure there was a partial requirement in marrying into the Björling family to like Jussi, but I come by my opera fan-ship honestly, and in a way owe it a great thanks in getting my wife to pay any attention to me at all when we first met.  At some point in my early 20's living in a house with three of my college room mates, fresh out of college, our house had a reputation that you might automatically give it -  having four college room mates living together in a big city.  But one summer evening as Lisa was coming to pick me up to go to a friend's house (we weren't dating at this point), she approached the house to the sound of Pavarotti and the three tennors blaring out of our would be post-college frat house.  Doors an windows flung wide open for the neighborhood to hear it, like it or not.  At this stage of the game, I had no idea who Jussi Björling was.  On the way over to our friend's house, Lisa very modestly said her grandfather was a singer - a tennor of some fame - Jussi Bjorling. "Really," said I, "that's cool." Little did I know that I was at the beginning of discovering for myself just how cool that was.

Here is an aria that is running as one of my favorite, and if you are an opera fan - it should make you weep a little. . . . in a good way. The one following it has been voted as the top duet of the century -  not much more to be said there.