Remembering
the Great Tenor Jussi Bjoerlng
BY WARREN BOROSON
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Some opera singers, as
wonderful as their voices were, almost completely faded away once they stopped
singing. Perhaps their voices weren’t distinctive enough, or maybe just not
good enough. Or they specialized too much — like Friedrich Schorr, famous for
his roles in Wagner’s operas.
In the case of one of my favorites, the
tenor Richard Crooks, I suspect that his fleeting fame had something to do with
his not making any movies. Perhaps that distinguishes him from tenor Mario
Lanza, who made quite a number of films still occasionally shown on television,
like “The Great Caruso.”
Other
older singers whose fame seems to have endured, or whose voices have been
rediscovered, include Lucia Popp, Conchita Supervia, and — especially — Jussi
Bjoerling (1911-1960). I meet a good many sophisticated music lovers who go on
and on about the beauty of Bjoerling’s voice and about his clear superiority
over other tenors. (Excepting Caruso.) They don’t become similarly enthusiastic
about Benjamino Gigli or Mario del Monaco or Richard Tauber.
I myself am one of Bjoerling’s admirers. In
my 20s I collected just about every record he had ever made. When I actually heard
him sing at the Met, I wondered: Why don’t critics and others in the audience
acknowledge how singularly gifted he is?
Trying to account for his superiority is not
easy. The essential explanation may be that his voice was just unusually
beautiful. Someone said that it was a combination of silver and gold — sweet
but also powerful.
His range was so broad that once, when a
soprano he was singing with could not continue, he stealthily sang her soprano
role for the remainder of the act.
Critics point out that his voice is
consistent. Whether he sang low or high, you know it’s the same singer — his
chest voice didn’t differ much from his head voice. And when he sang any note, he hit it directly in the center. As
for his high notes, they were, as one critic pointed out, using the perfect
word, “thrilling.” One conductor said that Bjoerling seemed incapable of making
a musical mistake. What’s more, his voice did not change with age. Finally, his
singing seemed effortless — even those thrilling high notes. I don’t have the
impression that Caruso’s singing was effortness: I imagine him hurrying through
an aria so as to rush offstage for a smoke.
Yes, as an actor Bjoerling was rather
wooden: “I am a singer, not an actor,” he said. But he acted with his voice.
Other criticisms: His voice tended to have conveyed a tinge of melancholy, his
Italian was none too good. And yes, he was no Einstein. I’ve never seen a
comment he made about the roles he played. What might he have been if not a
singer? His answer: a fisherman. What did he do in his spare time — besides
fish? He would watch Abbott and Costello movies and Westerns. (There’s an old
saying: The higher the voice, the lower the intelligence. It might apply to tenors,
like Gigli, as well as sopranos.)
I think of Bjoerlng as another Heifeitz.
The perfect musician.
Alas, he drank too much. And if he hadn’t,
he might have lived long enough to sing in “Otello” and “Lohengrin.” He was
waiting until his voice darkened.
After drinking, he could become quite
nasty. A waiter, hearing him lash out at his family while in his cups, went
home and destroyed his Bjoerling records. His wife was thinking of divorcing
him, and even consulted a lawyer.
But he could also be also kind and
considerate — especially with new artists, encouraging them and giving them
support.
He had feuds — for example, with Rudolph
Bing, manager of the Met. Someone once said of Bing that beneath his cold and
gruff exterior… beat a heart of stone. Actually, Bjoerling seemed to have tried
Bing’s patience — continually demanding more money — agreeing to give a
concert, then backing out.V
He started singing at age 4, taught by his
father, also a singer. He and his two brothers and their father formed a
quartet, which visited the United States. He made his formal American debut in
1937, age 26, at the Met as Rudolfo in “Boheme.”
He married twice, and his second wife, an
opera singer herself, co-wrote Bjoerling’s biography.
For a long time he had had heart problems,
and he died of a heart attack at only 49. ***
Victoria de los Angeles said, “It was
far, far more beautiful voice than you can hear on the records he left.”
His duet with Robert Merrill of an aria
from “Pearl Fishers” became a best-seller. And his recording of “Boheme” with
de los Angeles, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham, is considered, rightly, a
classic.
Sometimes I turn on the radio and hear a singer — and think, wow is he good!
Then I think — it must be Jussi. And yes, it turns out to be Jussi.
He refused to pay for a claque — members of
the audience paid to applaud at the right time.
“The day I have to pay for applause is the
day I quit,” he said. The head of the claque said, “We’ll make an exception for
you. You don’t have to pay.”
He was considered for the role of Caruso in
“The Great Caruso,” and he even went to Hollywood for a tryout. The movie
people wanted to alter his nose by plastic surgery so he would look more like
Caruso — or have an actor play the role, while Jussi sang on the soundtrack.
The role went to Mario Lanza.
In Hollywood Mario Lanza invited him over,
they embraced, talked about singing — got drunk. Later, Bjoerling would get
angry when his kids praised Lanza’s singing.
He was banned by the Nazis from appearing
in the Vienna State Opera because he wouldn’t learn “Rigoletto” and “Boheme” in
German.
Tenors have a well-justified reputation as
lechers. Jussi was an exception. He never fooled around.
But Ezio Pinza did. The great basso went
after every woman around him. Jeanette Macdonald, singing with Pinza in Canada,
found the perfect antidote: “Cut it out.”
Jussi heard that Pinza was hitting on his
wife.
Said he, “My God! And he isn’t even a
tenor!”
My favorite Jussi story:
He saw a poster for one of his concerts —
calling him the world’s greatest tenor. He objected.
Who’s better? His agent asked.
Gigli, said Jussi.
Gigli cannot sing lieder, said the agent.
Jussi then named other tenors — Mario del
Monaco, maybe Mario Lanza.
The agent named a failing that each of the
other tenors suffered from.
Jussi thought about it. Then said, “You
know, I just MAY be the world’s greatest tenor!”
In my book, he certainly is.
***
Bjoerling in Song
Salut demeure, “Faust,” Gounod
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJL1LqX9Uao&feature=related
“O Soava fanciulla,” “Boheme,”
Puccini --with Renata Tebaldi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn7bQXnIx_k&feature=related
Pearl Fishers’ Duet, Bizet — with
Robert Merrill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PYt2HlBuyI&feature=related
Je crois entendre encore, Pearl
Fishers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QFgPtmM7Ps&feature=related
Il mio tesoro, “Don Giovanni,”
Mozart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYPRYWt5gQU&feature=related
Only a Rose, Romberg
Merrill on Bjoerling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zqd5JU_Hxg
Because
La donna e mobile, Rigoletto,
Verdi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwTLzAm2jPs&feature=related
Celeste Aida, Aida, Verdi
I Dream of Jeannie, Foster
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09oT6cehVLY&feature=related
E lucean le stelle, Tosca,
Puccini
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2buzmEi0OxM&feature=related
Una furtiva lagrima, L’elixir
d’amore, Donizetti
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVjvFX98qMY&feature=related
Nessun dorma, Turandot, Puccini
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPEG914GATk&feature=related
Oh Holy Night
Song of India
Singing unaccompanied
The Bjoerlng Quartet
