Mrsammy, tho a bit extreme, howeva, finally someone who just doesn't blindly discars every other tenor as being subsingers compare to Caruso...we will never know though...
In all honesty. who can compare to this glorious voice....noone, absolutely noone....if Caruso were around during the Lanza years, even he could not compare......
In the studio recordings I would pick the Student Prince as his most beautiful popular recording from the first 1953 recording #LM 1837 not the one done later with Norma Gusti. I think also that his Vesti La Giubba in the last film he made "for the first time" was better then the version in the Great Caruso, his voice was fine in both but the later one is sung more in Character and was excellent.
I doubt Butterfly is any easier than Tosca but you need more memory for Tosca of course for it as it's the longer role even if the opera is shorter. Act 2 needs more heft. I don't think it's used as a stick against Lanza perhaps had he learned Tosca and they where doing it in New Orleans he would have sung it. Later he had chances in opera but was already in Hollywood making lots of $ plus his health problems didn't help. I actually prefer his later recording for his radio show of this aria
@dereckmcgovern I never knew about Sherwood but always liked Blyth and saw her on stage in "wait until dark" Doubleday was a very attractive woman kind of a red head as I remember her but only met her once for lunch so long ago. Mary Cocozza did keep in touch with her and had I been older at the time I would have asked her for a dinner date. Liz had a good personality on top of good looks. She met Schipa she mentioned and cooked him a spaghetti dinner once, but that's another story!
@dereckmcgovern I don't know about the workings of the lanza/ albanese duet but I do know what Double day told me about the student prince LP #LM1837 she said they recorded it Serperately, not a big deal. We had lunch together in the 60's and a nice conversation but she knew little it seemed about Lanza. Andy Karzas told me a few months before he died last April that Albanese- who he was very close too, said Mario told her Respectfully that he adored/loved her She was very moved by that.
@SHICOFF1 Hi: The Doubleday situation was a little different. Remember that her contributions replaced those of Ann Blyth, who for contractual reasons was unable to appear on the Student Prince soundtrack album. Lanza had already recorded his contributions with Blyth (in person) in 1952. RCA had originally intended for Lanza to re-record the two numbers he sings with Blyth in the film with Gale Sherwood in December 1953, but rare vocal problems (on Lanza's part) caused them to abandon the idea.
@SHICOFF1 ...The Doubleday contributions don't make much sense on the Student Prince album (since she sings both the Prince's and Kathy's lines in Deep in My Heart, Dear), but at least RCA elected to preserve Lanza's magnificent vocals from the film rather than getting him to re-record the two songs in question with Doubleday. After all, I doubt he could have bettered his magnificent opening to Deep in My Heart or the sensitivity of his Summertime in Heidelberg.
I do defend his voice but not all he sang. Sorry his Butterfly and Fenton live performances are not available. Butterfly is not a Huge role for the tenor, just the act 1 duet is long, some nice singing before that and the last act Addio aria, short but in between Tucker always said he didn't like the opera cause he might as well sit in his dressing room and play cards after act 1. ML turned me on to opera with his Great natural voice in the Caruso film, so at age 10 I was hooked on it.
@SHICOFF1 Pinkerton may not be a big role, but, as Domingo has pointed out, if you're not careful you can have more trouble with it than, say, Cavaradossi. The music is deceptively difficult -- just as difficult, in fact, as Cavaradossi's. Too much is made of Butterfly being a soprano's opera, especially when it comes to using it as a stick with which to knock Lanza's operatic potential....But can we now return to the magnificent rendition of Che Gelida Manina that "Greek Callas" uploaded here?
we all know he had a great natural voice but so did many others and as too who was the best that's all opinion anyhow. Wunderlich sounded like him in Granada purposely but as an opera singer he was polished and Lanza sang as they wanted him to sing in Calif. for film and that was not always in an operatic style for the movies but his Bowl performances in the 1940's where well sung. He may have known several roles at a young age but singing them on stage is another story and he had his demons.
@VINYLTOVIDEO Liz Doubleday recorded apart also from Lanza as she told me back in the 60's. I have heard Del Monaco in house sing Otello, Nov. 1959 and as Otello Lanza at 34 was not an Otello voice though it had darkened somewhat, and after hearing Polished Martinelli in live brdcsts from the 40's and MDM and Vickers plus hearing Heppner in house, not a typical Otello voice but he did it so well. I'm not impressed by ML's recording but many are. I Prefer his voice in a more lyric mode
@VinylToVideo: Warners' logs show that only Jean Fenn's contributions (on two duets) were recorded separately. See rense.com/excursions/lanza/recordinglogs2.html. Albanese herself stated in 1977 to Lanza biographer Armando Cesari: "I can state categorically that he absolutely never had any vocal or musical problems either in the Otello recording I did with him or the other recordings I heard him do." Bob Dolfi was hardly an expert on Lanza's recordings, and was definitely wrong in this instance.
@derekmcgovern Nice to see Lanza supporters are finally starting to get their shit together, but I'm sorry my opinion hasn't been changed by something that for all I know could be a Jeff Rense scribble. I actually have all the recordings ever made available (officially or otherwise) from those recording sessions and when compared to my collection as a whole, none of them stand out as being that fantastic.
Albanese thought the voice itself was beautiful but Gigli she said over 10 years ago in opera news was her favorite. She recorded Boheme with him in 1940 her first complete opera recording. I met her at a master class some 8 years ago and in the 1980's talked to her on the phone at her Apt. and she liked his voice but talked of Gigli and even on occasion said Bjorling was a favorite , so who knows. Richard Tucker in 1968 told me Lanza could have been the greatest opera tenor in the world.
@SHICOFF1 What Albanese said in a 1977 interview by my friend Armando Cesari was that *vocally*, she ranked Lanza "next to Caruso. Next comes Di Stefano, then all the others." She may have meant that Gigli and Bjorling were her favorites on the operatic stage.
I'm glad we've finally put the ridiculous assertion from Vinyl to Video that Lanza and Albanese never recorded together to rest. It never ceases to amaze me how much misinformation about Lanza is perpetuated here & elsewhere.
@jgraif Licia Albanese never sang with Lanza; how would she know? For the one recording that has their voices together they recorded separately on different days and different locations and it was track spliced together, like most of his recordings. Albanese sang with the best in opera including Gigli, Tucker, Bjorling, Corelli, etc. She's stated on record that her favorite tenors that she had worked with were Gigli and Corelli. Perhaps Lanza is her favorite movie star, but even that I'd doubt.
@VinylToVideo i accompanied the woman at a wedding in the 1980's. i asked her about lanza and that is what she told me. regarding the recording of their duet, are you absolutely sure of your facts? i would only offer that the liner notes included with the released compilation of his operatic duet recordings contains a photograph of lanza and albanese in the recording studio and that the recording predates les paul's multi-track experiments by several years. please comment.
@jgraif I am absolutely sure that Lanza and Albanese did not record the duet together, it was in fact tape spliced. This is also true of the "Boheme" duet he recorded with Jean Fenn. I don't recall where I originally read this but Bob Dolphi, personal friend of the Lanza family, confirmed this on the Lanza Legend (official Lanza website) forum a couple years ago when I inquired. I was once a Lanza fan so I understand where you're coming from but his singing and voice have lost all appeal to me.
@VinylToVideo your constant criticism of mario lanza is wearing thin. he was and is one of the greatest voices of all time , so please find another ( whatever), to criticise.
@my55sunliner Your argument (if you could call it that) is non-existent. "Is one of the greatest voices of all time" doesn't cut it. Where is the proof.. a few studio recordings made on a Hollywood sound stage? Until something more substantial than what delusional Lanza fans say becomes available the seasoned tried and true singers who spent 30 years singing on an operatic stage will retain the title of "greatest voices of all time" and the Hollywood washouts will remain just that.
@VinylToVideo I'm sorry but I think you need to research Mr Lanza a bit more.......he was and will still be one of the greatest opera singers of all time....you talk about the "few studio recordings made on a Hollywood sound stage".....If you do take the time to read (if you can) about Lanza, you will find that he did not like the fact that he made these films, just like Elvis, but he did have a passion about bringing Opera and classical music to the public. Please get your facts right, thanks
@tracychick100 If that were the case he'd sure have a lot more than one operatic appearance as Pinkerton, a tenor's least favorite role, with a lowbrow company and cast under his belt. He had ample opportunity to sing and perform opera and did not do so. His teacher Enrico Rosati tried to teach him several roles and he was more interested in getting drunk and sleeping around; no wonder he could only perform Pinkerton. Hell even I could.
@VinylToVideo This is simply not true! Mario worked very hard and had committed 20 complete operatic roles to his repertoire by his early 20's! His drinking only began when MGM had messed with him and put an injunction on him for refusing to work with the difficult ACTING director on The Student Prince. He was forced to Give Away his rights to the score, and started drinking as a result od stage fright from not performing! Read his biography!
@catlec39 LOL! Enrico Rosati wasn't even able to teach Lanza a single role. He was more interested in getting drunk and laid every night. The only role he could learn was Pinkerton and "Butterfly" is a soprano's opera. Don't kid yourself. Who wrote this particular biography, RCA Victor or MGM's PR department?
@my55sunliner the error of your reasoning is , these 30 year singers of opera you refer to, were not born with a golden voice such as mario lanza had. one can practice and sing opera for fifty years and only wish for a voice so beautiful and as powerful as mario lanza posessed. no one else could excel in opera, pop, show tunes, etc. like the magnificent mario did , and to perfection, the voice is all that really matters..
@VinylToVideo: You are completely mistaken about Lanza and Albanese recording their parts separately for their rendition of the Act III Otello duet (Dio Ti Giocondi). Both were present *together* in the studio, as the logs (and Albanese herself) confirm, on 22 November 1955. Albanese had nothing but the highest praise for Lanza's singing, saying that he had everything a great singer requires, including "the voice, the temperament, perfect diction."
@VinylToVideo: More proof that Albanese and Lanza recorded the duet together can be found in the liner notes to the RCA LP "Mario Lanza in Opera" (LSC 3101e) by Robert T. Jones. Albanese is quoted as follows: "I was very particular about my own work. I asked them to repeat the duet several times until I was satisfied with the results, and you know, Mario never said a word -- just sang and sang, giving everything he had to please me." Albanese also speaks about the recording on a CD I have.
@derekmcgovern Would that be the "processed stereo" double LP with Lanza as Pinkerton on the front? Somehow I'm unable to find it and haven't seen it in years. Oh well.
@VinylToVideo: The only occasions on which Lanza's singing partners were not present with him in the studio were in 1955, when Jean Fenn was unavailable on the day of recording, and in 1959 (for various logistical reasons). Elaine Malbin, Dorothy Kirsten, Blanche Thebom, Lucine Amara (and all the other Met singers who appeared in The Great Caruso), Albanese, Gloria Boh (whom I interviewed) et al were with him in the studio, and there is numerous firsthand testimony to support this.
"A beautiful distinctive version of this masterpiece. Mario's voice has a sparkling youthfulness, full of power and beautiful diction."
mario spent his youth listening to this music and developing a very special love for it. in my opinion, he understood it like no one else and always imparted his "sparkling youthfullness", power and impeccable diction to his performances.
he recorded every significant tenor aria. go find them and compare to any other.
@Aetion The photo is of a scene from Act III of La Boheme, filmed but later cut from Lanza's 5th film, Serenade. The woman with Lanza is Norma Zimmer, who was miming here to Jean Fenn (who appears elsewhere in the film) and they're performing the duet Ci Lasceremo alle Stagioni dei Fiori.
If you're interested in Lanza, I've just created a new site called Mario Lanza, Tenor. Can't type in the url here, but if you write those those three words as one -- and add dot com to it -- you'll find it :)
@derekmcgovern Thank you very much for the valuable infos. I just visited your site, which seems to be very interesting. Congratulations! I will have to go back to see it more carefully.
What he possessed was beyond just skill or talent. It was a gift from God, something that can never be duplicated or rivaled ever again. Thank you Mario for inspiring the world with your music.
What a glorious voice! Surely the greatest natural tenor voice of the past century. It's really too bad he never got the chance to perform at the La Scala's and the Met's (for he died so early). Just a magnificent performance.
Mario Lanza was the worlds greatest tenor at one stage and this recording definitely shows it. As a tenor that has played Rodolfo myself I admit that I can not compete with Lanza. Though I do hold the top C longer.
Mrsammy, tho a bit extreme, howeva, finally someone who just doesn't blindly discars every other tenor as being subsingers compare to Caruso...we will never know though...
abialex 2 weeks ago
In all honesty. who can compare to this glorious voice....noone, absolutely noone....if Caruso were around during the Lanza years, even he could not compare......
MrSammyscroll 3 months ago
In the studio recordings I would pick the Student Prince as his most beautiful popular recording from the first 1953 recording #LM 1837 not the one done later with Norma Gusti. I think also that his Vesti La Giubba in the last film he made "for the first time" was better then the version in the Great Caruso, his voice was fine in both but the later one is sung more in Character and was excellent.
SHICOFF1 9 months ago
I doubt Butterfly is any easier than Tosca but you need more memory for Tosca of course for it as it's the longer role even if the opera is shorter. Act 2 needs more heft. I don't think it's used as a stick against Lanza perhaps had he learned Tosca and they where doing it in New Orleans he would have sung it. Later he had chances in opera but was already in Hollywood making lots of $ plus his health problems didn't help. I actually prefer his later recording for his radio show of this aria
SHICOFF1 9 months ago
@dereckmcgovern I never knew about Sherwood but always liked Blyth and saw her on stage in "wait until dark" Doubleday was a very attractive woman kind of a red head as I remember her but only met her once for lunch so long ago. Mary Cocozza did keep in touch with her and had I been older at the time I would have asked her for a dinner date. Liz had a good personality on top of good looks. She met Schipa she mentioned and cooked him a spaghetti dinner once, but that's another story!
SHICOFF1 9 months ago
@dereckmcgovern I don't know about the workings of the lanza/ albanese duet but I do know what Double day told me about the student prince LP #LM1837 she said they recorded it Serperately, not a big deal. We had lunch together in the 60's and a nice conversation but she knew little it seemed about Lanza. Andy Karzas told me a few months before he died last April that Albanese- who he was very close too, said Mario told her Respectfully that he adored/loved her She was very moved by that.
SHICOFF1 9 months ago
@SHICOFF1 Hi: The Doubleday situation was a little different. Remember that her contributions replaced those of Ann Blyth, who for contractual reasons was unable to appear on the Student Prince soundtrack album. Lanza had already recorded his contributions with Blyth (in person) in 1952. RCA had originally intended for Lanza to re-record the two numbers he sings with Blyth in the film with Gale Sherwood in December 1953, but rare vocal problems (on Lanza's part) caused them to abandon the idea.
derekmcgovern 9 months ago
@SHICOFF1 ...The Doubleday contributions don't make much sense on the Student Prince album (since she sings both the Prince's and Kathy's lines in Deep in My Heart, Dear), but at least RCA elected to preserve Lanza's magnificent vocals from the film rather than getting him to re-record the two songs in question with Doubleday. After all, I doubt he could have bettered his magnificent opening to Deep in My Heart or the sensitivity of his Summertime in Heidelberg.
derekmcgovern 9 months ago
I do defend his voice but not all he sang. Sorry his Butterfly and Fenton live performances are not available. Butterfly is not a Huge role for the tenor, just the act 1 duet is long, some nice singing before that and the last act Addio aria, short but in between Tucker always said he didn't like the opera cause he might as well sit in his dressing room and play cards after act 1. ML turned me on to opera with his Great natural voice in the Caruso film, so at age 10 I was hooked on it.
SHICOFF1 9 months ago
@SHICOFF1 Pinkerton may not be a big role, but, as Domingo has pointed out, if you're not careful you can have more trouble with it than, say, Cavaradossi. The music is deceptively difficult -- just as difficult, in fact, as Cavaradossi's. Too much is made of Butterfly being a soprano's opera, especially when it comes to using it as a stick with which to knock Lanza's operatic potential....But can we now return to the magnificent rendition of Che Gelida Manina that "Greek Callas" uploaded here?
derekmcgovern 9 months ago
we all know he had a great natural voice but so did many others and as too who was the best that's all opinion anyhow. Wunderlich sounded like him in Granada purposely but as an opera singer he was polished and Lanza sang as they wanted him to sing in Calif. for film and that was not always in an operatic style for the movies but his Bowl performances in the 1940's where well sung. He may have known several roles at a young age but singing them on stage is another story and he had his demons.
SHICOFF1 9 months ago
@VINYLTOVIDEO Liz Doubleday recorded apart also from Lanza as she told me back in the 60's. I have heard Del Monaco in house sing Otello, Nov. 1959 and as Otello Lanza at 34 was not an Otello voice though it had darkened somewhat, and after hearing Polished Martinelli in live brdcsts from the 40's and MDM and Vickers plus hearing Heppner in house, not a typical Otello voice but he did it so well. I'm not impressed by ML's recording but many are. I Prefer his voice in a more lyric mode
SHICOFF1 9 months ago
@VinylToVideo: Warners' logs show that only Jean Fenn's contributions (on two duets) were recorded separately. See rense.com/excursions/lanza/recordinglogs2.html. Albanese herself stated in 1977 to Lanza biographer Armando Cesari: "I can state categorically that he absolutely never had any vocal or musical problems either in the Otello recording I did with him or the other recordings I heard him do." Bob Dolfi was hardly an expert on Lanza's recordings, and was definitely wrong in this instance.
derekmcgovern 9 months ago
@derekmcgovern Nice to see Lanza supporters are finally starting to get their shit together, but I'm sorry my opinion hasn't been changed by something that for all I know could be a Jeff Rense scribble. I actually have all the recordings ever made available (officially or otherwise) from those recording sessions and when compared to my collection as a whole, none of them stand out as being that fantastic.
VinylToVideo 9 months ago
Albanese thought the voice itself was beautiful but Gigli she said over 10 years ago in opera news was her favorite. She recorded Boheme with him in 1940 her first complete opera recording. I met her at a master class some 8 years ago and in the 1980's talked to her on the phone at her Apt. and she liked his voice but talked of Gigli and even on occasion said Bjorling was a favorite , so who knows. Richard Tucker in 1968 told me Lanza could have been the greatest opera tenor in the world.
SHICOFF1 1 year ago
@SHICOFF1 What Albanese said in a 1977 interview by my friend Armando Cesari was that *vocally*, she ranked Lanza "next to Caruso. Next comes Di Stefano, then all the others." She may have meant that Gigli and Bjorling were her favorites on the operatic stage.
I'm glad we've finally put the ridiculous assertion from Vinyl to Video that Lanza and Albanese never recorded together to rest. It never ceases to amaze me how much misinformation about Lanza is perpetuated here & elsewhere.
derekmcgovern 9 months ago
@Rusty214 what do you mean Rusty? His mom and dad were both from Italy and he grew up in a mostly Italian part of South Philly?
aaroncaruso 1 year ago
licia albanese told me that lanza was the best. no one came close.
jgraif 1 year ago
@jgraif Licia Albanese never sang with Lanza; how would she know? For the one recording that has their voices together they recorded separately on different days and different locations and it was track spliced together, like most of his recordings. Albanese sang with the best in opera including Gigli, Tucker, Bjorling, Corelli, etc. She's stated on record that her favorite tenors that she had worked with were Gigli and Corelli. Perhaps Lanza is her favorite movie star, but even that I'd doubt.
VinylToVideo 1 year ago
@VinylToVideo i accompanied the woman at a wedding in the 1980's. i asked her about lanza and that is what she told me. regarding the recording of their duet, are you absolutely sure of your facts? i would only offer that the liner notes included with the released compilation of his operatic duet recordings contains a photograph of lanza and albanese in the recording studio and that the recording predates les paul's multi-track experiments by several years. please comment.
jgraif 1 year ago
@jgraif I am absolutely sure that Lanza and Albanese did not record the duet together, it was in fact tape spliced. This is also true of the "Boheme" duet he recorded with Jean Fenn. I don't recall where I originally read this but Bob Dolphi, personal friend of the Lanza family, confirmed this on the Lanza Legend (official Lanza website) forum a couple years ago when I inquired. I was once a Lanza fan so I understand where you're coming from but his singing and voice have lost all appeal to me.
VinylToVideo 1 year ago
@VinylToVideo your constant criticism of mario lanza is wearing thin. he was and is one of the greatest voices of all time , so please find another ( whatever), to criticise.
my55sunliner 1 year ago
@my55sunliner Your argument (if you could call it that) is non-existent. "Is one of the greatest voices of all time" doesn't cut it. Where is the proof.. a few studio recordings made on a Hollywood sound stage? Until something more substantial than what delusional Lanza fans say becomes available the seasoned tried and true singers who spent 30 years singing on an operatic stage will retain the title of "greatest voices of all time" and the Hollywood washouts will remain just that.
VinylToVideo 1 year ago
@VinylToVideo I'm sorry but I think you need to research Mr Lanza a bit more.......he was and will still be one of the greatest opera singers of all time....you talk about the "few studio recordings made on a Hollywood sound stage".....If you do take the time to read (if you can) about Lanza, you will find that he did not like the fact that he made these films, just like Elvis, but he did have a passion about bringing Opera and classical music to the public. Please get your facts right, thanks
tracychick100 1 year ago
@tracychick100 If that were the case he'd sure have a lot more than one operatic appearance as Pinkerton, a tenor's least favorite role, with a lowbrow company and cast under his belt. He had ample opportunity to sing and perform opera and did not do so. His teacher Enrico Rosati tried to teach him several roles and he was more interested in getting drunk and sleeping around; no wonder he could only perform Pinkerton. Hell even I could.
VinylToVideo 1 year ago
@VinylToVideo This is simply not true! Mario worked very hard and had committed 20 complete operatic roles to his repertoire by his early 20's! His drinking only began when MGM had messed with him and put an injunction on him for refusing to work with the difficult ACTING director on The Student Prince. He was forced to Give Away his rights to the score, and started drinking as a result od stage fright from not performing! Read his biography!
catlec39 9 months ago
@catlec39 LOL! Enrico Rosati wasn't even able to teach Lanza a single role. He was more interested in getting drunk and laid every night. The only role he could learn was Pinkerton and "Butterfly" is a soprano's opera. Don't kid yourself. Who wrote this particular biography, RCA Victor or MGM's PR department?
VinylToVideo 9 months ago
@my55sunliner the error of your reasoning is , these 30 year singers of opera you refer to, were not born with a golden voice such as mario lanza had. one can practice and sing opera for fifty years and only wish for a voice so beautiful and as powerful as mario lanza posessed. no one else could excel in opera, pop, show tunes, etc. like the magnificent mario did , and to perfection, the voice is all that really matters..
my55sunliner 1 year ago
@VinylToVideo: You are completely mistaken about Lanza and Albanese recording their parts separately for their rendition of the Act III Otello duet (Dio Ti Giocondi). Both were present *together* in the studio, as the logs (and Albanese herself) confirm, on 22 November 1955. Albanese had nothing but the highest praise for Lanza's singing, saying that he had everything a great singer requires, including "the voice, the temperament, perfect diction."
derekmcgovern 9 months ago
Comment removed
VinylToVideo 9 months ago
@VinylToVideo: More proof that Albanese and Lanza recorded the duet together can be found in the liner notes to the RCA LP "Mario Lanza in Opera" (LSC 3101e) by Robert T. Jones. Albanese is quoted as follows: "I was very particular about my own work. I asked them to repeat the duet several times until I was satisfied with the results, and you know, Mario never said a word -- just sang and sang, giving everything he had to please me." Albanese also speaks about the recording on a CD I have.
derekmcgovern 9 months ago
Comment removed
VinylToVideo 9 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@derekmcgovern Would that be the "processed stereo" double LP with Lanza as Pinkerton on the front? Somehow I'm unable to find it and haven't seen it in years. Oh well.
VinylToVideo 9 months ago
@VinylToVideo: The only occasions on which Lanza's singing partners were not present with him in the studio were in 1955, when Jean Fenn was unavailable on the day of recording, and in 1959 (for various logistical reasons). Elaine Malbin, Dorothy Kirsten, Blanche Thebom, Lucine Amara (and all the other Met singers who appeared in The Great Caruso), Albanese, Gloria Boh (whom I interviewed) et al were with him in the studio, and there is numerous firsthand testimony to support this.
derekmcgovern 9 months ago
from musiclover59 three years ago:
"A beautiful distinctive version of this masterpiece. Mario's voice has a sparkling youthfulness, full of power and beautiful diction."
mario spent his youth listening to this music and developing a very special love for it. in my opinion, he understood it like no one else and always imparted his "sparkling youthfullness", power and impeccable diction to his performances.
he recorded every significant tenor aria. go find them and compare to any other.
jgraif 1 year ago
1949. His voice nearing its prime
mkl8000 1 year ago
Wonderful. Where is the photo from pls?
Thank you.
Aetion 1 year ago
Comment removed
derekmcgovern 9 months ago
@Aetion The photo is of a scene from Act III of La Boheme, filmed but later cut from Lanza's 5th film, Serenade. The woman with Lanza is Norma Zimmer, who was miming here to Jean Fenn (who appears elsewhere in the film) and they're performing the duet Ci Lasceremo alle Stagioni dei Fiori.
If you're interested in Lanza, I've just created a new site called Mario Lanza, Tenor. Can't type in the url here, but if you write those those three words as one -- and add dot com to it -- you'll find it :)
derekmcgovern 9 months ago
@derekmcgovern Thank you very much for the valuable infos. I just visited your site, which seems to be very interesting. Congratulations! I will have to go back to see it more carefully.
Aetion 9 months ago
What he possessed was beyond just skill or talent. It was a gift from God, something that can never be duplicated or rivaled ever again. Thank you Mario for inspiring the world with your music.
blueeagle8066 1 year ago 7
Mario was the man who introduced millions to opera and to his glorious voice and he still takes some beating.
Jimbo
Jimbotyke 5 years ago 5
What a glorious voice! Surely the greatest natural tenor voice of the past century. It's really too bad he never got the chance to perform at the La Scala's and the Met's (for he died so early). Just a magnificent performance.
VivaCallas 5 years ago
Magnificant!!
Clive1939 5 years ago
This is really pretty
SuSuGirl50 5 years ago
A beautiful distinctive version of this masterpiece. Mario's voice has a sparkling youthfulness, full of power and beautiful diction.
musiclover59 5 years ago
Mario Lanza was the worlds greatest tenor at one stage and this recording definitely shows it. As a tenor that has played Rodolfo myself I admit that I can not compete with Lanza. Though I do hold the top C longer.
bondal 5 years ago
Bravo on your high C. I hope you are also as handsome and debonair as Mario!
desertgump 5 years ago
Well I try to be, I sing as Mario in my touring company of "Mario Lanza: A Tribute" that is with Opera Australia.
bondal 5 years ago
Could you upload videos, or audio like mine of you singing?
GreekCallas 5 years ago
I may be able to I am not sure?? If I can I will.
bondal 5 years ago
Stunning! Beautiful beyond words.
marilynf 5 years ago
ive never heard this recording,his voice is in excellent condition in this recording.
hobo1975 5 years ago