He was a retired gentleman who spent his days in the old Duluth public library, shuffling through stacks of papers that he brought with him. I imagine he needed to keep a routine of some kind. I got to know him because he saw that I was interested in opera recordings. One day he noticed that I had picked up a version of Carmen. "Carmen is a fine opera," he told me, "but if you really want to know Bizet, you have to listen to Pearl Fishers." When I finally printed this negative several years later, it struck me that he looked the part of an angel, with wings and all.