We don’t hear those old recordings much anymore, but this one from 1950 is a classic.

I'm glad he tried.

The big difference between this and the Björling/Merrill performance (and even the Bocelli/Terfel performance, though Bocelli isn't anywhere near as good as Björling; his voice is so much weaker than Terfel's and he tends to flat) is that they couldn't pull off the requirement for this piece that their voices would soar instead of strain, which also caused inaccurate pitch. Opera requires some unique skills which pop singers who attempt opera almost never can pull off, one of which is making it sound easy, which it is not. I appreciate that sometimes they introduce a classical piece to an audience who might not hear it otherwise, but a mediocre performance doesn't do the music the justice it deserves.