Mario Lanza at 19 years of age

These are four little excerpts from Mario Lanza's first ever recording session. Recorded privately in 1940, when Mario Lanza was only 19 years of age.

I am not a huge fan of Lanza, and I think he has sung better than he sang here, but I've noticed a large number of Lanza fans on YouTube, and I hope that they all enjoy this post.

The arias are (played in this order):

-Vesti la giubba
-Che'll mi creda
-Torna a surriento
-E Lucevan le stelle

No idea how rare these are, but the sound is pretty good for the time.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Mario
• Lanza
• 19
• early
• 1940
• vesti
• la
• giubba
• che'll
• mi
• crdea
• torna
• surriento
• lucevan
• le
• stelle
• italian
• tenor
• actor

[GuinnevereB]

Instead of abusing the pianist, I'd have had the damn piano tuned, to solve a huge percentage of the problems with the accompaniment.

And while I'd recommend continuing, lifelong training to ANY singer, of course, I'm amazed at the magnitude of this native talent.

Yes, it could have been better. It's astoundingly good, just the same, considering the circumstances.

If he walked on water, some people would gripe because he got his shoes wet. My advice is: lighten up.

[nicksum29]

For 19 this is monstrously good.

[TonyDi]

Ah Mario could have sung the phone book and I'd have loved it. And after all he WAS 19 years old here but boy he was destined for the greatness he had and so much more he missed having died so young. Wish I could have met the man. Amazing. Thanks for posting this.

[meshell86]

@MacleanTony a big problem with recording then was mario's voice...the equipment couldn't catch all his sounds....as with the movie where he was in the church singing the lords prayer (or was it ova maria..i forgot,,,lol) but they ended up dumping their equipment and mario sang raw...with the church itself to carry his voice...amazing. so sad to lose him so young...even sadder we will never know the real truth about his death..

[gragrn]

This poor quality recording gives us a good comparison with Caruso, especially as the young Mario, who taught himself to sing by singing along to Caruso's records, sounds very much in the same style.

[patarthenry]

What a great Singer!!

[LanzaLover2]

Decades later, my concert pianist husband and I tried to make a "demo" recording without hiring a studio.  He was playing a 6' Steinway but in every attempt the piano sounded out of tune. So don't bash the pianist who had nothing whatsoever to do with the quality of the recording. If we couldn't get a decent sound decades later, what do you think the equipment used in 1940 could produce?

[MacleanTony]

The reason the piano sounds out of tune is because the recording equipment was not as well electronically controlled as as modern equipment. Equipment in those days was not as stable as modern recording systems . Simple

[Musikfreundism]

Eine ganz besonders gute Gestaltung dieses Liedes, und mit wunderbarer Stimme gesungen.

[eduardofuentesm]

Una verdadera reliquia que es muy útil para los jóvenes cantantes. Cantar como Mario Lanza tomó tiempo a Mario Lanza. El estudio es difícil pero con un buen maestro el resultado es asombroso.

[meshell86]

that was a relative playing, as i recall the story...the only young artist that may come close is mark vincent...he has so much of marios body language that its almost scary...but no one will ever, ever compare to this man...what a gift..such a sad sad loss for the world////

[hmscollingwood]

As a lifelong Mario fan I have never heard these recordings even though I've had a few of Mario's early 78s. His Vesti La Giubba sounds remarkably like his nemesis Enrico Caruso. However the style is clearly a mimic of his style with all the attendant lack of frequency response and dynamics of those early direct-cut 20th century wax and shellac recordings. Lest we forget, his passion inspired a whole generation of famous classical opera tenors,, regardless of his less than perfect style,