Art for Art's Sake

This movie probably doesn't deserve a 7 rating per se, but taken in the context of comparable 1930s American five-and-dime movies and the almost mythic stature of the leading man, it is a jewel. Jussi Björling, if not universally recognized as the greatest operatic tenor of all time, was still the tenor who Dorothy Caruso said was entitled to wear Enrico's mantle and, in my mind 50 years after his death, bearer of the most harmonically gorgeous vice ever recorded at the operatic level.

Björling was criticized as being a "park-and-bark" singer, one who planted himself on the stage and sang without much skill in the acting department. Like many opera-goers, I don't care if the singer is fat, short, homely, or dramatically challenged, I buy the ticket to hear phenomenal vocalism. What a delightful bit of serendipity, then, to find this movie with plenty of performance from that golden voice and the legend himself having a ball, obviously in it for the fun and some first-class slapstick. In one scene aboard a boat on the ocean I kept thinking of Lou Costello. For a park-and-bark tenor Björling demonstrates first-class comic athleticism.

Thirty years after Björling's death the Swedish Royal Opera organized a tribute performance in his honor. There the great Swedish soprano Elisabeth Söderström said the outward acting may have been stilted, but when she sang with him she saw in his eyes a total emotional immersion. The film is somewhat faded, of course, but I highly recommend it to fellow lifelong fans for insight into a highly enjoyable alternative side of our idol.