He also made a very popular 1948 recording of "Bluebird of Happiness", but it could not compete with Jan Peerce's best-selling 1945 version.
Papi had collapsed and was found dead in his apartment just hours before he was to conduct a performance of La traviata at the Metropolitan on November 29, 1941; the evening, which was to be broadcast over the radio, marked the company debut of tenor Jan Peerce.
He provided additional lyrics for Jan Peerce's best-selling recording of "Bluebird of Happiness" (music by Sandor Harmati, words by Edward Heyman).
Some of her other work for the magazine included featured stories on Luciano Pavarotti, Jan Peerce, Eleanor Steber and the filming of Francesco Rosi's Carmen.
Jan van Eyck | Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts | Jan Hammer | Jan Peerce | Jan Hus | Jan Mayen | Jan Guillou | Jan Smuts | Jan Fabre | Jan Morris | Jan Matejko | Jan Garbarek | Ignacy Jan Paderewski | Jan van Riebeeck | Jan Troell | Jan Tinbergen | Jan Neruda | Jan-Michael Vincent | Jan Kochanowski | Jan Brewer | Jan Bechtum | Jan Zamoyski | Jan Ullrich | Jan Peter Balkenende | Jan Egeland | Robert Jan Stips | Mian Shakirullah Jan | Larry Peerce | Jan Weenix | Jan Timman |
Besides his ballet recordings, Fistoulari served as recording accompanist to many legendary singers including Jan Peerce, Inge Borkh, Victoria de los Ángeles, and Boris Christoff, pianists like Edwin Fischer, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Clifford Curzon, Wilhelm Kempff, Earl Wild and Shura Cherkassky as well as violinists like Yehudi Menuhin and Nathan Milstein.
Examples are Jan Peerce's signature song, "Bluebird of Happiness", "Over the Rainbow" ("Somewhere over the Rainbow/Bluebirds fly"), "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" ("I'm Always Chasing Rainbows/Waiting to find a little bluebird in vain"), and "The White Cliffs of Dover" ("There'll be bluebirds over/The White Cliffs of Dover").
With a title change to The General Motors Promenade Concerts, the program moved April 1937 to the Blue Network for a series of hour-long thematic shows with male/female leads, including one show of Victor Herbert music with Jan Peerce and Rose Bampton.
In 1945 he signed a contract with the Metropolitan Opera, making his debut at the house on 18 February 1946 as Colline in La bohème with Dorothy Kirsten as Mimì, Jan Peerce as Rodolfo, Frances Greer as Musetta, John Brownlee as Marcello, and Cesare Sodero conducting.
The Lamar Stringfield papers at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill included Stringfield's correspondence with Robert Russell Bennett, Percy Goetschius, Edwin Franko Goldman, Morton Gould, Paul Green, Thor Johnson, Geoffrey O'Hara, Winfred Overholser, Jan Peerce, John Powell, Howard Richardson, Arthur Shepherd, and Leopold Stokowski in addition to many of his works.