Music: Friend & Foe

The Metropolitan Opera's under-lunged Italian tenor wing has been huffing & puffing, in a vain attempt to bring the house down, ever since 1941. That was when the Met's Swedish mainstay, Jussi Björling, was refused a transit visa to cross Nazi-occupied countries. Björling stayed in Sweden, packed the red and gold Royal Opera House in Stockholm. Last week 34-year-old Tenor Björling reached the U.S. by plane, the first European artist to return to the Met's roster since the war began.

Punishments. Björling, a neutral, was one of Europe's few front-rank musicians who got...

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