L'Africaine

“Ô paradis” (“O paradiso”)

September 4, 1937: Stockholm, Concert Hall

Unspecified orchestra, cond. Nils Grevillius

Naxos 8.110701

December 5, 1937: New York, Carnegie Hall

General Motors Symphony Orchestra, cond. Erno Rapee

WHRA-6036

June 8, 1939: Hilversum, AVRO Studio

AVRO Hilversum Orchestra, cond. Frieder Weissmann

Bluebell ABCD 006

July 6, 1950: Stockholm, Gröna Lund

Harry Ebert, pf.

Bluebell ABCD 114

October 23, 1950: New York, Rockefeller Center

Bell Telephone Orchestra, cond. Donald Voorhees

WHRA-6036

March 9, 1951: New York, Manhattan Center

RCA Victor Orchestra, cond. Renato Cellini

RCA 88697748922

May 25, 1952: Stockholm, Skansen

Harry Ebert, pf.

Bluebell ABCD 1001

On several occasions Björling recorded arias from operas he was yet to perform on stage, but only once did he sing an aria in Italian on disc before interpreting the whole role in Swedish. That role was Vasco de Gama in Meyerbeer's L'Africaine, the last opera in which he debuted at the Royal Opera in Stockholm (October 1938). Both the Italian and Swedish texts were translations from the original French, but for much of the twentieth century tenors generally preferred to record the G-flat major Andantino (in which the explorer marvels at the beauty of his exotic surroundings) in Marco Marcelliano Marcello's Italian version, which involves a number of modifications to the melodic line. The Swede's first recording immediately stands out as one of the best ever made, for the unalloyed lyricism of his sound mirrors the uncontaminated luxuriance of the setting.