I was invited to provide a eulogy at Don’s funeral and asked for favourite family stories I could use. The best concerned the farm property Don owned at Boorowa. He had a rough shed in a paddock near his house. There he installed a record player and a selection of his favourite operas. On a desperately hot day in February one year, he retired to the shade of his shed and cranked up the gramophone. Attracted by sounds of Bizet’s Carmen rolling in from the back paddock, his family wandered down to see what he was doing.  Don was reclining on a couch, his eyes closed, surrounded by fifty sheep who were also enjoying the shade and, apparently, the voice of Aureliano Pertile, belting out ‘The Flower Song’ (‘Il fior che avevi a me tu dato’) from a 1930 recording. Bruce Skilton and I listened to this recording with Don when he brought it into the NFSA in the late 1980s. ‘Still the best!’ Don said.  Judge for yourself.

1. Italian Columbia GQX 10651:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoLvC1D5G1U 

2. English Columbia DX 496: https://archive.org/details/78_carmen-9-act-2_aureliano-pertile-the-milan-symphony-orchestra-bizet_gbia7028792a