Prince Igor

“Medlenno den' ugasal” (“Dagen gick långsamt till ro”)

March 1933: Stockholm, Concert Hall

Unspecified orchestra, cond. Nils Grevillius

Bluebell ABCD 016 (take 1); Naxos 8.110722 (take 2)

January 23, 1957: Stockholm, Concert Hall

Royal Court Orchestra, cond. Nils Grevillius

RCA 88697748922

July 28, 1960: Stockholm, Gröna Lund

Bertil Bokstedt, pf.

Bluebell ABCD 114

Eight appearances as Lensky in Eugene Onegin, eleven as the Hindu Guest in Sadko and thirty-six as Vladimir Igorevich in Prince Igor: Björling's record in Russian opera was a respectable one. The Borodin role comes eighth in the list of the parts he sang most often—after Rodolfo (114 performances), Faust (71), Manrico (67), the Duke of Mantua (56), Cavaradossi (51), Roméo (44), and Riccardo (38)—yet is easily forgotten, for Björling neither recorded the opera complete nor sang it in any language other than Swedish. The opera was not in the Met's repertoire during the central decades of the twentieth century. Even if the tenor had sung it in America he would probably have been expected to perform it in translation. And Anna-Lisa Björling makes it quite clear in her biography how thoroughly her husband disliked relearning parts in English: he put up strong resistance before agreeing to sing Fidelio in that language for a concert performance in 1948.