In The Depths of The Temple

Lib's been busy organizing a few Christmas presents for her family and friends and asked me yesterday evening, "Where was the CD that has 'The Pearl Fishers' on it." She wants Gord to copy it so she can give it to Johnny Harkins. I couldn't find it, not realizing it was on one CD of a pair titled 'Greatest Voices of The Century', volumes 1+2.
I located it this morning after my walk, which was was cool and peaceful, the rising morning sun like a big orange ball shining through the smoke of the bushfires. In Quinn Rd. Sandy was on her deck having a smoke after nightshift and told me the house next door to them didn't sell at the auction the previous Saturday. No surprise, the day was very hot and the air was thick with bushfire smoke that smarted eyes and tightened nose and chest. The news on my radio said there were now 409,000 hectares burnt, and John Howard was to visit Whitfield today to show his support to the communities and the firefighters.
What Lib was referring to as 'The Pearl Fishers' is a song titled 'In The Depths of The Temple', a duet for a tenor and a baritone. It is, I think, from a Bizet opera called 'The Pearl Fishers', which her parents used to play on a vinyl record when she was a kid. It's a song straight from heaven with the two voices pitched perfectly and complimenting each other with exquisite emotion, moving and inspiring to hear, even if you don't know what the song is about.
I came across this CD set in the 1990's. The singers of the song I mention were Jussi Bjorling and Robert Merrill whom I assume are dead, as would be all the others including names such as Nelson Eddy, Richard Tauber, Joseph Schmidt, Jan Peerce, Peter Dawson, Enrico Caruso, Beniamino Gigli, Lily Pons, Anni Frind, Helen Traubel, Jeanette McDonald, and many others. I taped it for my friend Ida, (she died last week) who had a tape player but could not progress to CD's. She loved it, the old names and songs taking her back to her youth when those singers were like today's pop stars.
I played the CD through. It cut me wide open, my emotions exposed like a ripe avocado waiting to be scooped. When it got to Richard Crooks 'The Holy City', I cried, sitting alone. This was the song I last heard Lyle sing publicly. He sang at Carols by Candelight at Emerald for many years and one year he wanted Lib and I and the boys to go. It would have been the late 1980'sas Robbie was a baby. He was brilliant. It was the last time he sang at the Carols. The next year the organizers explained to him they wanted a younger tenor. He was miffed, but accepted it. Peter Chapple, an emerging professional singer got the gig. He became well known to me as he sang every year at our annual family picnic days at Nobelius Park. Sadly he died of a heart attack a few years ago, aged 48. I have a few CDs of his on which he sings many of the same songs the old timers did, including 'In The Depths of The Temple', as well as more contemporary stuff such as 'The Impossible Dream' and 'Some Enchanted Evening'.

This was the emotional spill I was always going to have. By the time I replayed Paul Robeson's 'Old Man River' I was OK. All those singers are dead and gone, Lyle's in his last days/weeks/months. But the songs live forever and the river rolls on. There's so much smoke outside now, it's eerie. So many people through the east and northeast of Victoria have the fate of their property hinging on the weather and the direction of the wind.