Apropos the comment by celticgal, Jussi Bjoerling also sang many popular songs of the day and recorded such under the pseudonym of Eric Odde; and Giuseppe di Stefano also did so under the pseudonym of Nino Florio. It distresses me no end that in the "Ed Sullivan Show" (formerly called "Toast of the Town")clips usually shown at PBS fundraising time, none of the opera singers are ever featured, and many were his guests including Birgit Nilsson and Daniele Barioni, just to mention two off the top of my head. And many of Leonard Bernstein's "Young Peoples' Concerts" are available on DVD.

John, Remember Young People's Concerts in the afternoon with Leonard Bernstein? I always find it amazing that when you put a classically trained voice with one that has not had so much training one can immediately hear the difference. I too remember Robert Merrill and Richard Tucker also, Jussi Boerling!

Great to see and hear a "real" artist like Domingo on commercial TV. I have gotten to be old enough to remember when he and his like were regulars on the talk and variety show circuits. Here in the greater NYC area, I can remember Robert Merrill and Richard Tucker on Sonny Fox's Wonderama kids' show. Carson even had "Bubbles" Sills host the Tonight Show on several occassions!