Since landing here in Arcata I've been spending much of my time puzzling over the King Billy quiz. Question 5.2 is one I really ought to have figured out on my own, but I didn't. The clue asks for "Merrill's famed fisherman partner", and we already knew that all the answers in this section end with "-ling". You can hear the correct answer on YouTube here.

I must confess, famous though it may be, I found it awful. I really don't like Björling much at all, and I especially don't like him in any French repertoire, where his oafish scooping and bellowing is even less appropriate. (I don't care for Merrill either.) YouTube's "related videos" feature offered up several other renderings of the duet, including the Domingo-Milnes version I remember from my childhood. I didn't like that one either. Indeed, I was surprised to find how many versions of the duet failed to impress me. French opera gets no respect. The Pearl Fishers duet is famous so every famous singer wants to sing it in concert, but most of them are either vocally or stylistically unsuited for the part.

On my fifth attempt, I finally found a combo I like: Paul Groves and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. It's wonderful. I had my doubts about Hvorostovsky, but he's fine, and Groves is awesome. See, that's a tenor who really ought to be singing Nadir. A while later I found Kraus-McDaniel, which is also very good. Kraus has a better voice than Groves, but I like Groves' style better, and I don't like Kraus's baritone as much.

Google tells me that the opera has been recorded with John Aler and Gino Quilico, which sounds lovely to me, and also tells of an older recording with Nicolai Gedda (my favorite), but I didn't find either of those on YouTube. YouTube does offer a version pairing Andrea Bocelli with Luis Ledesma, which I gave in and listened to. It's not quite as awful as I expected, but it isn't good.

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