Miscellaneous Lanza-related comments/questions

[Derek McGovern]

Please use this thread for any general Lanza-related questions or comments that don't warrant a separate thread. (I've just closed the previous "Miscellaneous Lanza" thread, as it was getting rather long.)

And to start the ball rolling, here's a message from new member Steve of South Wales:

Hi All

Hope this is of use. I received this email from TCM: "You asked us to remind you that "Great Caruso, The" is playing on TCM on Thu. March 03, 06:00 AM EST".

Hopefully it's the same TCM we watch here in UK.  You can ask to be reminded of forthcoming movies, and I believe they are running some more Mario Lanza films throughout the year.

[norma]

Hi Derek

I cannot see any mention of The Great Caruso on TCM in the UK TV Guide .            

Norma

[Derek McGovern]

I've been meaning to comment for a while on a recent interview with Ellisa Lanza Bregman that Tony linked to in a post on one of our earlier Miscellaneous threads:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYI9nh6WZxk

Tony was surprised that Ellisa didn't mention her father's time with Koussevitzky at Tanglewood, etc. Actually, I was more than surprised; I was incredulous at how little Ellisa seems to know about her father's life, or the tragedy of his unfulfilled operatic potential.

When asked by the interviewer to discuss Lanza's early years, Ellisa makes the absurd statement that her father started out by singing in parties and then next thing he was performing with what she calls the "Columbia Concerts Tour". There's no reference to his vocal studies with Rosati, his time at Tanglewood, or the fact that he even sang in opera. She also states that Mario's big break was in 1948 [actually, it was 1947], when he sang at the Hollywood Bowl -- but even then she gets the facts wrong, stating that Louis B. Mayer's secretary Ida Koverman heard him at this concert and told her employer about him. Wrong! Mayer was at the concert!

She then dispenses with any further discussion about Lanza's performing career, and instead talks about his movies. Nowhere in this interview does she convey the impression that her father had an extraordinary operatic voice or that, more than anything else, he yearned for an operatic career. On the contrary, she makes it seem as though a movie career was his only goal.

This is the second interview in a row that I've heard with Ellisa where she glosses over her father's operatic aspirations. In another interview last year, she made the extraordinary claim that Lanza signed up with MGM because he was tired of live performing and wanted to be with his family. Little matter that he'd barely begun the ten-month Bel Canto Trio tour when he signed with MGM (or even sung those two Pinkertons), and that he specifically requested a contract that would free him for half of the year so that he could continue with a stage career.

Oh, I wish Ellisa were even half as informed about her father's operatic aspirations and recordings as her highly musical sister was.

[norma]

With reference to the recent post about Peter Pritchard ,is it possible to get a copy of And God Created Tenors?

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Norma: As far as I know, And God Created Tenors is not available on YouTube. But honestly, you're not missing much! The basic premise of this entertaining but very lightweight programme is to highlight the vices of tenors from Caruso to the present day (smoking, drinking, overeating, womanizing, etc).

In the brief segment on Lanza, which ends with his death being attributed to "epic over-indulgence" (!), Peter Prichard (there's no "t" in his surname, by the way -- an unusual spelling) claims that Mario began each morning with a shot of vitamins in the backside to counteract the alcohol in his system, followed by a champagne breakfast. He also implies that Lanza was bulimic (now there's a first!), and goes on to describe him as very colourful but impossible to deal with (a violent drunk, etc).

All in all, not a very flattering portrayal!

Cheers
Derek

[Tony Partington]

Hi Derek,

 

I guess I chose to be somewhat conservative in my comments regarding Elissa Lanza Bregman's interview as I did not want to ruffle any feathers and, quite honestly, I don't know if I have the right to be too critical of her.  I do agree with you Derek as far as all you point out in your post.  However, here is the thing as I see it.  Elissa is the only living child of Mario Lanza a brilliant and stellar talent (we all agree on that) who is still, here in 2011 (one-half a century after his untimely death) not only misunderstood but still a "mystery" as far as the simple facts go regarding him as a musical and performing artist.  He lived in the twentieth century a period where things of note were documented and he; his music, his recordings, his performances, his films, his appearances, his LIFE was most certainly of note.  My god, we now have over half a dozen biographies written about the man - one, by Armando Cesari, the most replete, researched, detailed and all encompassing biography of them all (IMO).  Still, to many, Mario Lanza remains a mystery, or worse still a perpetuation of lies and untruths: His voice was too small for the opera stage, his voice was the result of recording engineers, he ate 12 chickens in one sitting, he was never sober (Peter Prichard), He went from 350lbs. to 150lbs. in 30 days, he is the father of an illegitimate son who has a great tenor voice (Victor Lanza), and it goes on and on.... But I am digressing from Elissa and her interview. 

 

As I said in a former post, my one and only meeting with Elissa and her husband was most pleasant andI enjoyed greatly talking with her, at length, about Constantine Callinicos.  Now with Elissa being the only living child of Mario Lanza, a great responsibilty falls upon her shoulders.  It is indeed quite a responsibility and she may not like this, she may not even want this, but never the less being Mario's only living child the world, logically, turns to her for the "gospel truth" about her father.  This makes sense.  I recently watched, on YouTube, an interview with Lon Chaney, Jr. regarding his famous father Lon Chaney, Sr. (The Man of a Thousand Faces) and it was wonderful.  He told of his father and how his parents (Lon Jr's grandparents) were deaf mutes and how Lon Chaney, Sr. used much sign language in his films.  They showed a clip from THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME and Lon Chaney, Jr. pointed out how his father, in various scenes, used the universal signs for "Love," "Pity," "Hate," etc.  In all events, my point is Lon Chaney, Jr. had clearly, at some ;point in his life, made a decision to know all that he could about his father, both personally and professionally.  Please understand, I am not implying that Elissa does not wish to know or does not care about her father's life and career.  I simply wonder if knowing the specifics, being intimately interested in the details of exactly how and when things happened in her father's life are a key concern to her.  I don't know.  Only she can answer that question.

 

I do think it only right and fair to point out that Elissa does have her own life.  She has her marriage and her family to concern herself with.  She also has - and this may be perhaps a greater burden than simply being the only living child of Mario Lanza - the past to grapple with, both mentally and emotionally.  She has lost both parents (when she was a small child) and, additionally, lost all of her siblings.  Again, I feel it most important to state that I am in no way making any judgements, simply observations. 

 

Finally, what Elissa knows and cares to know of her father is, ultimately, her own affair.  How open she is about her father, her childhood and what she remembers of it is also too, her affair.  Personally I find myself vacillating as to how I might feel and internalize all that must go into being the only living child of someone so prolific as Mario Lanza.  Would I want a very public persona or would I choose a more private lifestyle.  Look at the extent to which Jackie Kennedy was willing to go to after the assasination of Bobby Kennedy to provide a private protective world for herself and her children.  I am not comparing, merely illustrating a point.  What matters really, it seems to me, is that Elissa is alive and well and does have the connection that she does with her father, her mother and her siblings.  It would be wondeful if she were a font of detailed Mario Lanza information but she's not.  She is his daughter and for that I offer her all my very best wishes for both her and her family.  As for having that font of detailed Mario Lanza information... I believe I've found it.

 

Ciao ~ Tony

 

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Tony: Just a quick response (as I'm besieged with chores today).

I don't doubt for a second that Ellisa (note the spelling, by the way -- virtually everyone on all the forums gets it wrong! :)) is a gracious and hardworking advocate for her father. Wherever she goes, she seems to make a very positive impression, whether it be through media appearances or at the various Lanza tributes and get-togethers.

But you asked for comment on that particular interview, and I'd be lying if I didn't say that I was disappointed (yet again) by Ellisa's apparent lack of knowledge about her father. Mario didn't get his start in "parties"; even in his teens, he was appearing in local (amateur) operatic productions. By the age of 21, he'd been discovered by Koussevitzky, and was being hailed by the New York Times for his performance as Fenton (he has "few equals among tenors of the day"). That's very significant stuff! To gloss over his operatic aspirations and early experience and simply present him as a movie star is to tell only part of the story. After all, Lanza's greatest ambition wasn't to appear in movies; it was to achieve greatness on the operatic stage. I keep coming back to Peter Herman Adler's reminiscences of visiting Mario in Rome in 1959: "He was working two hours a day with an operatic coach and intended to go back to opera, his only true love."


Cheers
Derek

[Tony Partington]

Hi Derek: Point(s) very well taken, very well taken indeed. Perhaps
for Ellisa, at least during that particular interview, things blurred
terribly. I think Mario Lanza's (her father's) beginnings; the
initial study with Irene Williams, his knowing William Huff and then
the big brreak of making contact (via an improvised audition - however
it happened) with Serge Koussevitzky is vital information in the Mario
Lanza story. His success at Tanglewood, his singing while in the
service, Winged Victory, the Bel Canto Trio and all the many concerts
that introduced this extraordinary voice to the public, and finally
the Hollywood Bowl Concert. All of these are, as you rightly point
out, facts in Lanza's amazing career and none of these incidents,
alone or collectively, diminish the unique and fascinating story of
Mario Lanza's success. I think the most important point you make is
that Lanza, to his dying day, ideally saw himself as an operatic
artist. I think he had a great deal of work to do and a good many
demons to overcome but there is no doubt in my mind that, had he lived
and had he marshalled the willpower and discipline needed, there would
have been indeed another chapter written in the life of Mario Lanza
and a rich one it would have been.

All the best ~ Tony

On Mar 1, 6:38 pm, Derek McGovern <derek.mcgov...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Tony: Just a quick response (as I'm besieged with chores today).
>
> I don't doubt for a second that Ellisa (note the spelling, by the way --
> virtually everyone on all the forums gets it wrong! :)) is a gracious and
> hardworking advocate for her father. Wherever she goes, she seems to make a
> very positive impression, whether it be through media appearances or at the
> various Lanza tributes and get-togethers.
>
> But you asked for comment on that particular interview, and I'd be lying if
> I didn't say that I was disappointed (yet again) by Ellisa's apparent lack
> of knowledge about her father. Mario didn't get his start in "parties"; even
> in his teens, he was appearing in local (amateur) operatic productions. By
> the age of 21, he'd been discovered by Koussevitzky, and was being hailed by

> the* New York Times* for his performance as Fenton (he has "few equals among

[Derek McGovern]

"Lanza, to his dying day, ideally saw himself as an operatic artist."

Yes, that's the key, I feel. While he's been frequently repackaged and
misrepresented as a pop singer (in the 1950s sense of the term), the
man was always an operatic tenor first and foremost.

Cheers
Derek

[Tony Partington]

Very sad news about Zsa Zsa Gabor.  Poor thing, her health is failing so terribly and she's been through such a great deal up to this point already.  I shall always remember her performance in FOR THE FIRST TIME with great fondness.  A great actress she most certainly was not but she was very good at playing herself.  My two favorite Zsa Zsa moments from FTFT are: In the beginning of the film, when the curtain's being held because Tony Costa (Mario) is out in the rain singing to the people who couldn't get a ticket to the opera and inside the the opera house the audience is in an uproar at finding this out.  The Contessa (Zsa Zsa), defends Tony declaring that he is a great singer and a great lover.  Then later, once Tony is on the Isle of Capri the Contessa tracks him down and they meet in the hotel bar.  Tony declares he is hiding from a "cold cruel world."  Then the Contessa suggests that they "hide" together in her suite and Tony thinks this a very good idea. 

 

Very silly stuff but fun none the less.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110302/ap_on_en_ot/us_people_zsa_zsa_gabor_4

 

Ciao ~ Tony

 

PS: Interestingly enough, my father co-starred with Magda Gabor (probably the least well known of the three Gabor sisters) in a comedy called HER CARDBOARD LOVER.  It was back in the early fifties at the Memphis Arena Theater.  From what my dad told me, Magda was not any greater a thespian than her sister Zsa Zsa.

[Tony Partington]

I'm not sure if this was noted on the forum or not but Bob Dolfi died on January 25,2011.  Here's the link to his obituary.

 

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?n=robert-henry-dolfi&pid=148152732

 

 

[Michael McAdam]

Tony: replying here, if I may, on behalf of our down-to-the-wire-busy moderator, Derek did mention Mr. Dolfi's death here on the Forum.

Cheers, Mike

[Tony Partington]

Thanks Mike!

[Tony Partington]

Here's a rather intersting story that mentions Mario Lanza.  This fellow claims to have been friendly with him.  Who knows?  Interesting character though, that's for sure.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34818457/ns/us_news-life

[Derek McGovern]

The following is a post from Joe:

JOE

Since Mario was well known and lived during the peak time of American musicals, I have ofter wondered if he was ever approached to do one....or whether he , himself, may have been interested. I do not recall ever reading about this in any of the bio's.......and I have to doubt whether he was capable of doing a long term , repetitive performance ( i.e. did he have the discipline?). Are my assumptions correct?. I would have loved to have seen him in something like Carousel. Just curious....Joe

Hi Joe: From November 1943 to May 1944, Lanza did appear in a musical (well, a musical play) and on Broadway too: as a member of the chorus of Moss Hart's Winged Victory. But I'm not aware of him being considered for any musicals after that, and I doubt very much that he would have been interested in any stage work that wasn't operatic. I also think you're right that he would have hated the repetition of performing in the same show eight times a week!

Cheers

Derek    

[Tony Partington]

Hello Folks!  Kristi and I are down here in the remote Florida panhandle town of Apalachicola visiting my mother and my sister.  We've enjoyed wonderful weather and it's been glorious for us both to be away from work - we are seriously considering removing ourselves permanently from civilization.  I think we've both had enough of the healthcare industry (or racket I should say).

 

Anyway, to my Mario related post.  This is, in my opinion, a truly strange one.  Can someone out there tell me what in the world this is?  I have to believe this is some kind of campy joke or something.  This CANNOT be for real!

 

http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/canadas_mario_lanza_girogio_longdo/

 

http://www.giorgiolongdo.com

 

Perhaps this is yet another unknown son or grandson or nephew or cousin of Mario Lanza's.  Who know?

 

Ciao ~ Tony

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Tony: A "campy joke" is too kind! I only lasted through 30 seconds of this clip. As someone wrote on YouTube, he's like a male Florence Foster Jenkins.

[Michael McAdam]

My Lord! This has to be a send-up. Lovely vibrato though, don't you think? I was waiting for a shepherd's crook to appear from stage right and mercifully yank him off and back to whatever Montréal restaurant spawned him!? (Canada's Mario Lanza? I thought that was me....there's another bubble burst! ;-))

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Mike (aka Nova Scotia's Mario Lanza): According to various luminaries on the Lanza Legend forum, Longdo sees himself as the real thing (although obviously those around him must be taking the mickey, as we say back home). Incredibly, Longdo was chosen as one of the pre-Ball acts at the Mario Lanza Ball some years back.

Cheers
Derek

[Lou]

At least the guy doesn't pass himself off as Mario Lanza's illegitimate son or other blood relative.

[Tony Partington]

Pre-Ball perhaps but most certainly POST-cocktail (and a number of them) entertaintainment.

 

Say, I've got an idea.  Why not have Giorgio Longdo as an opening act for Charlie Sheen?  It might broaden the artistic scope and appeal of the "Torpedo Of Truth" Tour and then perhaps old Charlie won't have quite so many walk-outs.  And just think, all thanks to the the Canaidian Mario Lanza!

 

Ciao ~ Tony

[Tony Partington]

Well not yet Lou.  But if he were to have a tranfusion from Victor...who knows.

[Heidi]

[norma]

Is there any chance of any more home recordings of Mario coming to
light? One of my favourite songs of Mario is Love me tonight 1959.I
know it has its faults but does anyone else love it?

Best to all Norma

> > Ciao ~ Tony- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Norma: No new home recordings after 1952 have turned up, to the best of my knowledge. But you never know! Some of the most exciting Lanza home recordings, e.g., the 1952 Improvviso, only surfaced within the last fifteen years. There may well be people sitting on more of these treasures. The late Barry Nelson, for example, told Armando in 1977 that he had a number of wire recordings of Lanza stored away. Who knows what happened to those?!

Love Me Tonight is a thrilling piece of singing. Yes, it has a few rough spots, but the way Mario soars to those high As on "hours" -- coupled with the romantic intensity of his phrasing -- gets me every time. It was the first number recorded at his marathon all-night session of The Vagabond King in July 1959, and it's the highlight of the album for me. Incidentally, Muriel discusses Love Me Tonight in this essay (which also contains a link to the best reproduction I've heard of the recording). It's also popped up in discussion from time to time on this forum. (Just use the "search" function if you want to locate those posts.)

Cheers

Derek 

[Derek McGovern]

Norma's praise for "Love Me Tonight" inspired me to listen to the recording tonight for the first time in ages. 

It's as good as I remember it: as compelling a piece of singing as, say, the "L'Alba Separa dalla Luce l'Ombra" from the previous month. It's also very sensuously rendered -- just listen to the way Lanza shapes "Now, while I long for you." The initial "Love me" in the first half is a sweet touch too. I also love the sense of urgency that Lanza gives the reprise, especially on "before they go." 

It's odd, though, that a retake wasn't made of the second half -- or should I say additional take, as the second half was in fact a retake. (There's a definite edit audible immediately before he begins the reprise.) Mario stumbles on the first word ("Lo...ove"), so you'd think they would stopped the take then and there and started over. Still, that and the less-than-perfect ending are minor blemishes. This is grand, romantic stuff, after all!

One little irony about Lanza's recording: he sings it as a solo, while in the original score it's a duet -- but sings "Some Day" as a duet, while in the original it's a solo for the soprano (Katherine)! Then again, the entire album is unfaithful to the original Broadway musical in terms of who sings what. My second favourite recording on the album -- "Nocturne" -- is actually an ensemble number, while the lead role of François Villon (the vagabond king-for-a-day) is sung by a baritone. Not that any of this matters! After all, The Vagabond King score is responsible for several gems in the Lanza legacy, including the 1951 "Some Day" and the 1956 "Only a Rose." Thank you, Mr. Friml!

Love me tonight

Now, while I long for you. Love that in a day may be dying. That sorrow will never renew. The hours that we know Measure our dream of delight. Sweetheart, before they go, Love me, love me...tonight.

[Derek McGovern]

The mention of Tyrone Power on the Lanza Legend site today reminded me of a Lanza reference I recently came across in a book on the actor.

Kurt Kasznar, who played Lanza's long-suffering manager in For the First Time, was a friend of Power, and in late 1958 was going to join him in Spain, where he was filming Solomon and Sheba, as soon as FTFT was finished. According to Hector Arce in The Secret Life of Tyrone Power (1979), it was actually Mario who told Kasznar the tragic news about their mutual friend:

"[Kasznar] was in his hotel room when he received an urgent phone call from Mario Lanza, asking him to come to his hotel suite. The singer met Kasznar at the door, tears streaming down his face. He'd heard a radio report. 'Tyrone is dead,' he cried."

Sad stuff. Though -- like Mario by that stage -- he looked older than his years, Power was only 44 (some sources say 45). Absurdly young! Even that notorious hell-raiser Errol Flynn made it to 50...

[leeann]

Dear Norma, I don't think there is romance in my heart very often, but "Love Me Tonight" broke through barriers when I first listened perhaps two years ago,  knowing little of Lanza's repertoire, of his story, of the range of his music, and perhaps mostly, of his interpretive genius. As Derek said, it was a thrilling piece of singing and it touched me profoundly. It was another one of those pieces that made me want to listen to more of Lanza's work and to know more about the person who could do such a thing. And the clincher is the throaty part at the end.  I am looking forward to rereading Muriel's essay. Thanks for bringing this up.  Best, Lee Ann

[norma]

I have seen a 3 of Mario`s home videos on YouTube.These may be just excerpts but Iwonder if there are any more?The ones I have seen are 2 outside and one inside,lasting the length of a song.Any chance of much more?

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                           All the best Norma

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Norma: There are a few home movies (in colour) floating around of the Lanza family, but the quality of the ones I've seen is very poor (jumpy camera, etc). There's not much going on in them either. Much more interesting, I feel, are the newsreels:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_j2HxgxSLw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Kf10OnV5cM

In the first one, we see the funeral in Rome, then Lanza in 1956 (smoking!) with his lawyer shortly before testifying before the Grand Jury, followed by his departure from Las Vegas in April 1955, and finally the funeral in Los Angeles. (Incidentally, Lanza looks terrific in the Las Vegas footage -- much better, in fact, than he appears in most of Serenade, which he filmed later that year.)

The second video, which was lovingly put together by Vince, includes footage of Lanza receiving the Photoplay Award in 1952 and his arrival in Naples in May 1957, as well as the visit to Filignano in September 1957.

[Derek McGovern]

Armando sent me a photo today of a deleted scene from The Great Caruso, which I've just added to the Miscellaneous section of our photo gallery. Grazie, Armando! It's #21 in that section, and shows Lanza with the cub reporter (Robert Sherwood) who pesters him in the film for an interview. Mario/Enrico appears to be looking at the reporter's article.

I wonder if Sherwood's still alive? It would be fun to ask him about the scene. If he is still with us, then he's only one of a handful of people associated with the film who are alive today. Offhand, the only other performers from the movie still living that I can think of are Ann Blyth, Teresa Celli (Tosca in the first operatic montage), Lucina Amara (Trovatore scene in the second montage) and Peter Price (Caruso as a boy). That doesn't include extras, of course -- one of whom was apparently George Chakiris of West Side Story fame. According to the Internet Movie Database, the then-16-year-old Chakiris appeared as a dancer in the film, though if it's true, I've yet to spot him.

On the subject of deleted scenes, I would dearly like to read the screenplays of Lanza's films. It would be fascinating to find out what scenes were discarded or altered along the way. According to a fan article from 1959, Lanza had bound copies of all the screenplays on display at the Villa Badoglio; I wonder who has these now?   

[Armando]

Hi Derek: The bound copies of the screenplays were in Mario’s father’s home when I visited him in 1972. He specifically pointed them out to me along with other items such as the Gold Records and large photos taken at Tanglewood, which were hanging on the walls.

 The screenplays were in Damon’s possession when I was his house-guest in 2002.

 I think that of the surviving people you mentioned, Teresa Celli would be the most interesting one to interview. As well as being a singer she dated Mario before he married Betty.

[Derek McGovern]

Ciao Armando: Interesting! So I guess we can assume that these screenplays would have gone to Bob Dolfi on Damon's death in 2008 -- and then to his widow Marlene D'Attanasio this year. If so, I hope Marlene appreciates what treasures she's inherited.

Yes, Teresa Celli would be fascinating to interview (preferably sooner rather than later as she's now 87). I wonder if we could locate her? Hopefully, if she remarried after her marriage to Barry Nelson ended, she kept her surname. That would certainly make it easier to find her.   

Here's a pic of her from the 1950 movie The Asphalt Jungle:

Cheers

Derek

[Derek McGovern]

I see that snobbishness and ignorance about Lanza continue to rule in certain classical music quarters:

http://www.classicalmusicguide.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=38912 

I tried unsuccessfully to register to that forum a few minutes ago. Will keep trying, though, as I'd love to respond to the posts there. 

[Derek McGovern]

Lee Ann has just added an interesting article from the Los Angeles Times of 1 October 1950 to the movie section of our feature "Lanza and the Press." It's an interview with the director of The Great Caruso, Richard Thorpe, and includes a photo of Celli with Thorpe, Dorthy Kirsten, Blanche Thebom, and Jarmila Novotna. The article also refers to a scene not featured in the film in which Novotna -- who plays the haughty (fictional) prima donna Maria Selka -- bites Caruso's hand. (There's a humorous photo of her re-enacting that moment with Lanza floating around.) 

The article is spread into three parts and begins as the eighth item in that section. Do check out the other features while you're there; there's some fascinating stuff, ranging from a glowing review of The Great Caruso from the Tasmainian newspaper The Mercury to the hilarious story from Life Magazine about Lanza becoming "the masked marvel."    

[Derek McGovern]

A P.S. to the above: in another article that Lee Ann uncovered for me today in her research on Teresa Celli, there's a brief piece about The Great Caruso by Hedda Hopper from the Los Angeles Times of 25 November 1949. This is interesting in that Hopper states that five women will be appearing alongside Lanza in the film, which at that pre-production stage was being called "The Life of Caruso." The actresses named are Teresa Celli, Ava Gardner, Kathryn Grayson, Janet Leigh, and Sally Forrest.

[Savage]

Derek, over the years I've seen a lot of sheet music in shops and at flea markets, yet have never see any music with Mario on the cover.  Is this just bad luck or was there perhaps never any such music.

                                                                                                                  David

[Michael McAdam]

David: I'm almost positive I saw sheet music for Song of India at a little odds 'n' sods shop in Arizona last year (on old Route 66 as I recall).

Cheers, M.

[Derek McGovern]

Hi David and Mike: There's a reasonable amount of sheet music floating around with Lanza on the cover, and I'm sure I've seen Song of India. Here are a few other examples:

Cheers

Derek

[Savage]

Thanks!  I'll keep looking. It would be something worth framing if in good condition.

                                    David

[Derek McGovern]

A question from Barry (which I'm moving from a separate thread):

While I was looking through the offerings of Amazon.com for Mario Cds.
I came across this one which I had never seen advertised...http://
www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B003QLEDU8/
ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=5174&s=music...is this something worthwhile
to buy? Is it just a conglomeration of Marios hits thrown together?
Thank you for any information on this.

[Derek McGovern]

Barry: That url you gave was only for the cover image, not the track listings! Here's a link to the product overview, including sound samples of each recording:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/100-Hits-Legends-Mario-Lanza/dp/B003QLEDU8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306150549&sr=8-1

This set has been around for nearly a year, and from what I can recall/hear, the recordings have been taken directly from SonyBMG CDs. It's a real mishmash of material that has already been released -- lots of good stuff, along with the usual terrible choices (e.g. "More Than You're Know"), and a predilection for Coke performances of Neapolitan songs and arias ("Fenesta che Lucive," "Recondita Armonia," "Maria Mari'", etc) over the usually superior RCA versions. Now and again, though, the choice pleasantly surprised me: the RCA version of "E Lucevan le Stelle" and "Che Gelida Manina," and the 1955 "Torna a Surriento," for example.

It's cheaper at the link above (five British pounds -- a steal for 100 tracks!) than at Amazon.com (US$23), even with the postage taken into account, I'd imagine.

Barry: can I ask a favour? When you have a simple question like the one in your post above, could you please use this thread rather than creating a new one? We'll end up with thousands of discussions otherwise :) (Of course, if the post ends up generating lots of replies, then at that stage we can create a separate thread for it.)

Cheers
Derek

[JOE]

Would Have Lanza been able to sing as a BARITONE, in time ( assuming he lived a reasonably healthy lifestyle)? It seems to me that his voice was darkening and becoming quite baritonal ( is there such a word?) at a very early age. Personally, I thought the younger, more lyric Lanza voice was more exciting ( I think we had a vote on this in the past).

 

Jow

[JOE]

Oooops, make that JOE, not Jow...one finger typing does that. BTW Derek, How do you highlight a subject w/o making a new post?

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Joe: There's no real way to highlight a new subject within an existing thread, but remember that any replies to a post will create their own "tree" within a thread if you're reading the messages on this site rather than via email. (Posts can be viewed in either "tree" format or "flat" chronological format; see the function on the top right of this page to make your choice.) 

As for the baritone question, we actually already have a thread on that topic:

https://groups.google.com/d/topic/mariolanza/gjLaOvCuFK4/discussion

But I will say here that there's a big difference between having a baritonal (yes! it's a real word!) colouring, as Mario had, and having the vocal placement of a baritone. Listen to how he has to sing "into his boots" in a couple of spots on Will You Remember, as he enters baritone territory!

There's no question in my mind that Lanza would have remained a tenor. He still had all the notes in 1959. The voice had grown in size and darkened, and there was more steel in it -- "a true robusto tenor," as John Coast wrote in 1958.

Cheers

Derek

[Derek McGovern]

P.S. Here's a link to Will You Remember. The passages I was referring to are the two times he sings "Will you remember this day."  

[Lover of Grand Voices]

Hello Derek

I've seen the remake of the Great Caruso and will show it to a group of students in July.  The filming is obviously better than the old versions I've used.  I do not have a VHS copy which I understand is of good quality.  In any case, the new work is good in tonal quality but you need to raise the volume to appreciate the voice.  These comments are only after one review.  I will see the movie several times and make a better critique.  In the meantime, as noted, the film quality is noticeably better, as it should be, but the tonal quality of the vocal renditions need some added volume to appreciate them better.  All in all, it is a work of art because of Mario Lanza.

All the best

E

[Derek McGovern]

Ciao Emilio: Thanks for that. I look forward to reading about the reactions of your students when they see The Great Caruso in July. Make sure you play it a decent volume!! They'll get the shock of their lives, though, when the sound suddenly surges during the "Che Gelida Manina" sequence :)

And just in case anyone misunderstood Emilio's reference to "remake" -- he's referring, of course, to the recent DVD of The Great Caruso on Warners' Archive Collection label.

Cheers
Derek

[Derek McGovern]

I've just been reading a few pages of a massive discussion thread at amazon that involves Lanza:

http://www.amazon.com/forum/opera/ref=cm_cd_et_up_redir?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx33HP9T15QNRQH&cdPage=1&cdSort=newest&cdThread=Tx35DB53ZFPLYE0&newContentID=Mx2FNJ3KU4VZMFA#Mx2FNJ3KU4VZMFA

There's an awful lot of negativity about Lanza there, including the regurgitation of the myth that he possessed a small voice. One person claims that he was told by Jack Belsom, archivist at the New Orleans Opera, that Lanza's two performances as Pinkerton there had to be miked. Absolute rubbish! I was in contact with Belsom myself a few years back. I've responded to that person, and also to another person, who stated that the famous German mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig had claimed in her autobiography that she'd sung in concert with Lanza, and that he "couldn't be heard past the seventh row."

Outrageous! Ludwig never sang with Lanza, and of course there's overwhelming testimony from top conductors, singers and critics alike about the more-than-ample size of his voice. But it appears that Ludwig did, in fact, write those things -- or at least the claim about him possessing a small voice. There's a snippet view of her (German-language) 1998 autobiography available through Google Books, and she states on page 234: "Er hatte eine kleine Stimme, ebenso wie Mario Lanza, der ebenfalls eine reine Mikrophonkarriere gemacht hat." This roughly translates, if Babelfish is to be believed, to "He had a small voice, just like Mario Lanza, who likewise had a pure microphone career."

Curiously, however, there's no mention of Lanza in the 1999 English-language Christa Ludwig: In My Own Voice, which I assume is a translation of the 1998 book.

Steff: Perhaps the next time you're in the library, you could look for Ms. Ludwig's book and see if the concert claim is really in it. Or, if you're feeling really brave, you could even contact the 83-year-old grande dame! :)

Never a dull moment in the Lanza world...

[Steff]

Derek,

I have yet to pay a visit to the library but with a little trick I managed to find out who Christa Ludwig was talking about when she made this comparison to Lanza. The passage in the book mentions the ability of sound technicians and productions managers to dominate the human voice (I think it is meant in the sense of "manipulating" it). The passage which you translated (BTW, correctly) continues with (my translation):

"I was very surprised when I was in a TV-show of Peter Alexander and when we were singing some duets from German traditional songs together. They had been pre-recorded and were played during the broadcast by playback method. ... When we were standing next to each other to record the duets, Peter Alexander had the microphone very close to his mouth and I could hardly hear him sing, though I was standing directly next to him. When we listened to the recordings, I could hardly believe my ears! His voice sounded so honeyed, his intepretation was so intimate, each breath had its expressiveness, so that I, who had been singing "normal," sounded absolutely colourless and insignificant, without any refinement."

Derek, please got to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLTrc1jK7bQ

At about minute 1:24 you hear Christa Ludwig sing with Peter Alexander. This may be one of the recordings Ludwig was referring to in her book.  And in

http://www.myvideo.de/watch/7954892/Peter_Alexander_und_Christa_Ludwig     

Ludwig appears in another Alexander Show some years later (singing Rossini's cat duet with him).


Honestly, I am surprised that Christa Ludwig compares Peter Alexander with Lanza. Peter Alexander was a very famous movie actor, entertainer and singer from Austria (he just died a few weeks ago) with a great personality, very popular in all German speaking countries. For many years he was conferencier in musical TV shows.  He made many recordings but he was NOT a trained singer. His singing voice was very pleasant (especially when he sang in his Viennese dialect) and he had a great ability of impersonating others (at least one similarity to Lanza!). When you have a look at the first video link you will notice that many famous singers liked to be guest in his shows.

Steff

[Armando]

Some of the words sung by Don Basilio in the aria “La Calunnia e’ un Venticello,” from The Barber of Seville are:  Va scorrendo, va ronzando; nelle orecchie della gente s’introduce destramente, e le teste ed i cervelli fa stordire e fa gonfiar.

The English translation for the aria is  “Slander is a Little Breeze”, and the words: It goes spreading it goes buzzing ;it penetrates insidiously the ears of people and bewilders and inflates the mind and the brain.

 In Lanza’s case the slander has had a mighty effect and, therefore, I’m not at all surprised that totally absurd notions such as “small voice” “couldn’t sustain”  “no training” etc. linger on more than fifty years after his death. When I say I’m not surprised I’m referring to the general public, who having heard a rumour,way back, have simply repeated it.

What does surprise me, though, is a professional singer such as Christa Ludwig talking absolute nonsense. Even if she didn’t hear Lanza in concert (she certainly didn’t sing with him) she should be able to tell by the colouring and timbre that the voice was not a small one.

I find the notion that Lanza had a small voice so ridiculous that it often reminds me ofa story that was going around the Italian migrant community in Melbourne, in the late fifties, to the effect that Caruso had been discovered while he was picking grapes! They had seen Serenade, and since they associated Lanza with Caruso, the grape-picking episode became a fact for them and nothing one said would convince them otherwise.

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Steff: Ah, so you know the trick of manipulating the "snippet view" on Google Books as well! :) I'm pleased you didn't have to visit the library to unearth Ms. Ludwig's nonsense.

Thanks to your detective work, it's obvious now that Ludwig never stated that she'd sung in concert with Lanza. The singer who "couldn't be heard beyond the seventh row" was Peter Alexander. But that doesn't excuse Ludwig's absurd and utterly gratuitous reference to Lanza. After all, there were plenty in the German musical scene who had heard him in recital in 1958, and could have vouched for the size and quality of his voice. Ludwig even worked with people -- e.g. Leonard Bernstein -- who had heard the man sing in person, so you'd think that at some point in her long career he would have come up in conversation. And, as Armando points out above, the colouring and timbre of the voice alone should have made it obvious to her that it wasn't a small instrument.

Ciao Armando: Don Basilio's words certainly apply to poor old Mario! Take this latest instance: someone reads Ludwig's comments about Alexander, blurs them in his mind with Lanza, and reports them on Amazon. And voilà! Before you know it, the slander has spread like Dutch Elm Disease, and is being "reliably" passed on to all and sundry as fact. 

Has any singer ever been subjected to so much sheer misinformation and malice? Let's see: we had Domingo state on British TV in the late 1970s that he'd "been told" that Lanza was unable to complete a performance of an opera (La Traviata, I think he said it was), and walked off the stage. Domingo knows better now, but how many people watching that programme would have quietly stored away that comment in their minds as "fact"? And I've heard people state that Lanza died on stage of a burst blood vessel! In both cases -- like your hilarious anecdote about Caruso being discovered while picking grapes -- someone had confused scenes out of Lanza's films with the truth. Then there's the Mafia "hit" story, the couldn't-learn-a-complete-opera story, and the unchallenged claim by the otherwise reputable Cyril Ornadel on the 1974 BBC radio series The Mario Lanza Story that Lanza was incapable of singing without his conductor guiding him through every phrase. 

Even when one refutes yet another tedious falsehood about Lanza -- i.e., that he was incapable of singing with nuance and the appropriate sense of style -- by playing something like "M'Appari'", the response inevitably is that, "Oh, but he had a small voice." Conversely, if one establishes to the naysayers that the voice wasn't small, the criticism then turns to his supposed complete lack of musicianship! The man just can't win. Wikipedia doesn't always help either, as there seems to be a neverending source of people who feel compelled to tinker with his biographical page, adding nonsense from Hedda Hopper and the like. (And while I think of it, I must correct the ridiculous statement on Elaine Malbin's Wikipedia entry that she recorded music with Lanza for The Great Caruso!) 

Sifting through that Amazon discussion, the consensus appears to be grudging acknowledgement that Lanza possessed a great natural voice, coupled with the view that the man did absolutely nothing with that gift. In other words, he was a musical ignoramus who simply happened to be born with a great voice (for which he shouldn't be accorded any credit). But to deny the interpretive qualities that Lanza brought to his singing seems to me even more absurd and unjust than the "small voice" myth. 

Cheers

Derek

[Derek McGovern]

No sooner had I written the above than the following post appeared on Amazon:

Nancy Eckert says:

There is no such animal as the greatest anything. It's a matter of what one hears and one's taste. So far as Lanza is concerned, the proof is in the pudding and the pudding was fairly cold live and in person on stage. He was so fearful (see Corelli) that he strutted and acted like a jerk. At the same time, both Pavarotti and Domingo LEARNED from Lanza recording BY THEIR OWN ADMISSION. As an innate voice, however raw, he had - more probably - the greatest tenor instrument ever. The gift was not enough - his egocentricity did him in.

My response:

DJ McGovern says:

Nancy Eckert: You say that, "So far as Lanza is concerned, the proof is in the pudding and the pudding was fairly cold live and in person on stage," and that the man's "egocentricity did him in." Have you actually *read* the rave reviews that Lanza received for his live performances throughout his career? The New York Times, for example, reported of his operatic debut at Tanglewood (as Fenton in Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor") that he had "few equals among the tenors of the day." 16 years later, when Lanza was on his final recital tour (in 1958 -- the year before he died), he was still being hailed, not just for the quality of his voice, but for what he brought to his singing. As Dr. Kurt Klukist, music critic of the Lubecher Nachricten, wrote after attending Lanza's concert in Kiel: "It is difficult to know what to admire the most. The faultless breathing technique, the elastic precision of his wording, the light 'piano.'" For goodness' sake, give the man some credit.

As for Lanza's supposed "egocentricity," if only that had been true! It was the fact that Lanza was *insecure* about performing in public (in the light of the outrageous criticism he received for having appeared in movies) that "did him in" as far as returning to the opera stage after 1948 was concerned. If he'd been the egotist that you suggest he was, he would have continued to sing on the opera stage regardless of these criticisms.

Has any operatic singer ever been subject to more downright malice, misinformation, and misrepresentation? I don't think so. Again, as I wrote earlier on this discussion, see my essay "Mario Lanza: A Radical Reassessment" at www.mariolanzatenor.com for a rational analysis of the man.

[Joseph Fagan]

Derek, Wasn't it the Queen of England, herself, who said to Lanza after his Command Performance something to the efffect of: " I never knew that human lungs could produce such volume"!?...While the Queen is not a musician, she surely is a VERY  credible witness, is she not?? This B.S. about Lanza's small voice is a quite weak and unsubstantiated tale from petty snobs!

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Joe: Agreed, but the "petty snobs"'s nonsense has been incredibly influential. It seems that no matter what musical forum I visit, I find the same old stories being perpetuated about Lanza's "small voice" and inability to be anything other than a bull in a china shop.

And speaking of myths, even my grandfather, who was a big Lanza fan, told me that Mario spent most of his time "running around in his underpants" :)

Cheers
Derek

[leeann]

Just a quick note.  It's fascinating that this discussion has moved to the extraordinarily public and well-trafficked venue of Amazon. How much larger the audience--and the range of the discussion--than when people take on this topic on, say, the Opera-L listserv, Grandi Tenori or even YouTube where the conversation is more fragmented--one video at a time. Unquestionably, this democracy of communication is awfully frustrating--but on the other hand, accurate information gets out to a wider audience. There's little opportunity for a widely-read rebuttal of say, the recent BBC program or say, Goldovsky's take on Lanza at Tanglewood. But here, Derek's addressing some of the most erroneous statements about the voice and slanderous statements about Lanza himself, and  the readership is large and the conversation is vital. So cheers for Derek.

[Derek McGovern]

Thanks, Lee Ann. I think, on reflection, that this Amazon thread we've been discussing may be a blessing in disguise -- a chance, as you say, to address so many erroneous and slanderous statements.

A thoughtful fellow by the name of Michael Paull has just posted on that thread, and I've responded with the rather difficult-to-refute testimonials of many a famous opera singer :):

http://www.amazon.com/forum/opera/ref=cm_cd_NOREF?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx33HP9T15QNRQH&cdPage=15&newContentNum=364&cdMSG=addedToThread&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=Tx35DB53ZFPLYE0&newContentID=MxSTER3E01OM2D#CustomerDiscussionsNRPB

Cheers
Derek

[Steff]

Derek, as for Domingo stating "on British TV in the late 1970s that he'd "been told" that Lanza was unable to complete a performance of an opera," I wonder who actually started with this rumour.  As I child I and my mother (born 1939) loved watching "The Great Caruso"  on TV. I remember that the only thing she knew about Lanza (and may I add that she was not aware that Lanza played in other films than TGC!) was that his real name was 'Cocozza' and that he was not able to sing in a complete opera. And I can confirm that my mother certainly had not seen any program on British TV (we had maybe 3 TV channels in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, all German).

As for the snippet view, I only managed to view another sentence from the book, but with this I was able to find a forum that was talking about Peter Alexander ....But, to be sure, I will definitely check Christa Ludwig's book.  However, it definitely IS silly to compare a "Schlager-Sänger" like Peter Alexander with Lanza.

Steff

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Steff: I'd say the couldn't-sing-an-opera story dates back to the early 50s. It was probably started by snobs incensed by the enormous popularity of The Great Caruso. "How dare Lanza portray Caruso?!" "Who does he think he is?" (I wonder how those same people would react today in a world where the likes of Josh Groban and Susan Boyle are regarded by many as opera singers?!)

It's curious that Lanza didn't make more out of the fact -- especially in interviews -- that he'd sung two roles on stage. One of the few times I'm aware of that he mentioned having sung an operatic role was in the interview with Jinx Falkenburg in 1949, and even then (strangely enough) he only brought up The Merry Wives of Windsor. (The other two were in the excellent Etude interview and a 1958 interview.) You'd think he would have mentioned the Pinkertons he'd sung just 17 months earlier.  Even Dorothy Kirsten was convinced that he'd never been able to learn a role sufficiently to sing it on stage -- that is, until Armando corrected her.

Come to think of it, one of the few services that Time Magazine cover story of 1951 performed for Lanza was mentioning that he'd appeared in Madama Butterfly. But nothing was mentioned in the article (of course!) about how well his professional operatic debut was received.

That Amazon thread, by the way, continues to get better. Michael Paull has written another fine post there, and I've again responded to him.

Cheers
Derek

[Steff]

Derek,

Just as I posted a record review of "The Student Prince" on LL (I know Linz will love it!!) I thought it might also be a good addition to our discussion of unwarranted remarks about Lanza's singing. I also added a second newspaper clipping which actually was a concert review of tenor James Haun, but which compares this singer with Lanza. I wonder how bad the day of those two critics must have been started that they wrote such a rubbish!!

Steff

 

[Savage]

"fairly cold live and in person on stage????" I read this idiotic statement and thought immediately of the rendition of Someday from the second Shower of Stars show. The expressiveness and amazing warmth are unforgettable.
                                                                                                                                                                                 David

[leeann]

Dear David, idiotic sums it up neatly: stupid, foolish, nonsensical.   I'm going to wax rhapsodic here for a minute. I'd run out of descriptive words for the magnificence of Lanza and just remembered one to hurl toward spurious critics (of course, buttressed with the usual (mostly) irrefutable evidence):  inimitable. That is, "incapable of being duplicated or imitated, surpassing all others, unique."  That'll do it.

And just a little bright spot and a bit of fun. On Twitter this weekend,  things are going well for Lanza--including tweets about the Mario Lanza Opera Prize competition at the University of Birmingham, UK, rave reviews, referrals to playlists and YouTube, and interesting comments--all in 140 characters or fewer--such as

"Mario Lanza before noon. It's because I'm intense." and "Very busy day at work. Have resorted to a chocolate brownie and Mario Lanza to calm my brain down."

Best, Lee Ann

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Lee Ann: Those tweets about Lanza are hilarious! He may not be a household name any longer, but he certainly has a cult following among the younger set. (Which reminds me: I have an actor friend in New Zealand who delights in blasting the "Mario!" Neapolitan album at cast parties, to the delight of his young theatrical friends. He also finds Lanza very therapeutic.) Let's hope that some of that Twitter activity leads people toward our site. 

Cheers

Derek

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Steff: I was flabbergasted by the absurdity of John Masters's comments about The Student Prince. "Third-rate tenor"? Third-rate critic, more like it! 

I can't believe it was the same Masters who wrote this review of Lanza's Serenade soundtrack album:

Being able, for the first time, to appreciate the romantic appeal of Mario Lanza's singing, I am happy to report that his record of popular songs and operatic arias from the film Serenade, is much superior to his earlier RCA recordings. The voice is smoother, the singing even and more restrained and with the exception of the film title song and My Destiny, both of them threadbare pieces, Mr. Lanza  acquits himself most creditably.

He is at his best In Torna a Surriento and La Danza, singing these familiar ballads with unforced warmth. He gives an excellent performance of Di Rigori  Armato from Der Rosenkavalier and, with Licia Albanese, a dramatically convincing account of  Dio ti Giocondi from Verdi's Otello. Equally listenable, if somewhat variable  in artistic quality, are his renditions of Nessun Dorma (Turandot) and the beautiful Lamento di Federico from Cilea's L'Arlesiana.

The other items include Di Quella Pira (Trovatore) O Soave Fanciulla (Boheme with Jean Fenn) Schubert's Ave Maria and Amor Ti Vieta from Giordano's Fedora; this is intelligently sung.
The disc is decidedly worth trying.

Coincidentally, Masters wrote for Armando's local newspaper, The Age -- a Melbourne daily.  

Cheers

Derek

[Steff]

Derek,

Yet, Masters is still critical on Lanza. The more I read his Serenade review the more I think that his assessment was meant in the sense of "acceptable." He still was not convinced of Lanza's singing ("equally listenable"), was he?
I wonder if there were any reader's letters in later newspaper issues, critisizing his statements on the Student Prince album ... Maybe letters from those fans "with uncritical acceptance," as he called them ...

Steff 

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Steff: No, I think Masters's Serenade review is good. He actually could have been tougher on a few of the operatic selections (Nessun Dorma, O Soave Fanciulla, Di Quella Pira) -- and legitimately too (in my opinion). The only thing I'd quibble with is his lukewarm praise for the Lamento.

Re-reading the two reviews, I find it hard to believe they were written by the same person. Whatever the truth, that review of The Student Prince is one of the most astonishingly inept and unprofessional assessments I've ever read on Lanza.

Cheers

Derek

[leeann]

Hi, Derek, Calling people's attention to the site via a tweet did lead the occasional viewer to the site when we first launched and I did a special account, I think,--but it's a labor-intensive marketing tool and a bit hard to track. :-). It's useful, too, for identifying  broadcasting sites, radio stations that feature Lanza from time to time. But by and large, most people who tweet about him are focused on other things--not Lanza per se. He's embedded in their broader messages or projected identities.  Interestingly, Lanza tweets come in several languages and across age groups--and then there are the dogwalkers who geolocate twice daily from Mario Lanza Park in Philly. :-)  Best, Lee Ann

[Armando]

Hi Derek and Steff: I find Masters review of the Student Prince astonishing but not entirely surprising. He had, in fact, been equally scathing earlier on in his assessment of the A Kiss and Other Love Songs LP. To the best of my knowledge the comments re the Serenade LP are the only decent things he ever said about Lanza.

Steff: I do recall Masters, who was writing regularly for the THE  AGE, but I don’t know and can’t find a thing on what his musical credentials were, if any.  Perhaps you, with your super search ability, can find something about him.  

[leeann]

Dear Derek, I've just had a bit of time to go through more of the posts on
Amazon, and I have to say--the numbers of thoughtful replies and opinions
are rather impressive!  And a very recent post--just about an hour ago would
tend to support the idea that your efforts made a difference. and that this
is, by and large, a venue whose members encourage open-mindedness, listening
as well as talking. One poster indicates changes in opinion since the thread
began.  Piso Mojado writes as part of a longer post:
"Mario Lanza's admirers have made a strong case now. The comments and
assessments of his operatic colleagues are very telling. Of 63 posters on
this thread, I wonder how they are divided now on the question, but not
enough to count up myself."  Then yet another poster cites the brilliance of
Lanza's L'Arlesiana.

It's telling, I think, not so long ago, the idea of membership forums was
novel--and now, the self-selection of open-commenting--something we were
perhaps a bit afraid of in the beginning--is by no means the monster many
anticipated. In fact, it can be awfully mind-blowing.

Anyway, more cheers to you for the Amazon thread. Going back to reading more
of it now.

[Vincent Di Placido]

I am stunned by Masters' "review" of "The Student Prince"
soundtrack!!! I know we all hear things differently & we can't always
like the same things but he is just being ridiculous in this review, I
can't believe he actually listened to the album...
Derek, great replies & arguments as always from you, I have always
admired how you put the record straight...

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Vince: I knew you'd be shocked by Masters's absurd review :) He has a kindred spirit on Amazon, by the way: one "John Ruggeri," who on that Amazon discussion Lee Ann mentions above has just dismissed Lanza as having a "throttled" voice and "crude" phrasing. (For good measure, he also trotted out the myth that Mario's "volume" was the result of "happy engineering.") I've just replied to him here.

Cheers

Derek

[Derek McGovern]

Correction: use this link to be taken to Ruggeri's post and my replies.

[Derek McGovern]

Ha! Ruggeri's come back claiming that he has it "on good word" that Mario couldn't be heard properly beyond the first few rows. I've let him have it:

http://www.amazon.com/forum/opera/ref=cm_cd_notf_message?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx33HP9T15QNRQH&cdPage=16&cdThread=Tx35DB53ZFPLYE0#MxEVQZ4D2XD5TI

[barry oderfer]

Derek, I commend you on fighting for our man Mario. It has
to be very taxing sometimes considering how many negative
comments are out there. Good job.

---

Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2011 11:00:33 +0900
Subject: Re: Miscellaneous Lanza-related comments/questions
From: derek.m...@gmail.com
To: mario...@googlegroups.com

[norma]

Derek  could you explain what you mean by Marioisms to the uninitiated?

 

                                                                                                      All the best Norma

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Norma: I don't think I've ever used the term "Marioism." It was coined by the lovely Muriella (whom I'm hoping will return here before too much longer), and simply refers to any of those endearing, idiosyncratic touches that Lanza brings to his singing.

Cheers

Derek

[Derek McGovern]

Armando has written a superb post today for the ongoing discussion at Amazon on Lanza. Check it out!!

 

[Steff]

Hi Armando & Derek,

Finding information on John Masters seems almost impossible. I only noticed that his column "Off the Record" - was printed in "The Age " between 1957 and 1960.
I contacted "The Age," hoping they would be able to provide me with some information, especially about Masters musical background." They got back to me today but the reply was disappointing: "I'm terribly sorry to say that I do not know anything about John Masters, and I have no way of obtaining this information. I've also tried a Google search without any luck. Again, I do apologise that I cannot assist in this instance."

The only thing I found about him was the following announcment (see attachment) "John Masters Presents Record Rendezvous, AW Tonight 10.30 - 11.25," but it does not mean anything to me. Is this a radio program?

Steff

[Steff]

I am very keen to know if anybody here can answer my following question.
On a website which offers vintage posters I spotted a Caruso poster, apparently from Russia. The seller says that it is a poster from "The Great Caruso" movie with Mario Lanza. At the bottom, there's something written in Cyrillic capital letters. I may be wrong but I think the second word means "Caruso." I doubt that this poster actually is from "The Great Caruso," and would rather say that it is from the Italian film "The Young Caruso" with Ermanno Randi, Gina Lollobrigida and the singing voice of Mario del Monaco. There's more written at the top of the poster but it is not legible. Can anybody help?

Steff

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Steff: I wouldn't sweat it over trying to find out more information about John Masters. For all that he was (apparently) a respected critic -- and that he wrote a decent review of the Serenade album -- his Student Prince review is so full of unwarranted bile and absurd criticism that the man's opinions mean nothing as far as I'm concerned. How, for example, can anyone with even a modicum of musicality claim that Lanza's singing of Deep in My Heart Dear is "heavy-handed"? The version on the LP only features his intro (since Elizabeth Doubleday was inserted into the proceedings to sing both Kathy and the Prince's lines), and it's one of the most magical, delicate pieces of singing he ever delivered on record. "Heavy-handed"? Masters was lucky that our young Mike McAdam wasn't in Melbourne at the time!! :)

I'm very pleased you found the review, though, as it exemplifies the ridiculous things that were being written about Lanza by so-called professional critics during his lifetime.

Lee Ann has added the review to our Albums section of Lanza and the Press, and we've both added a bit of commentary about it.

Cheers
Derek

[zsazsa]

Hi Steff,

this poster is definitely the Russian `Great Caruso` (Mario`s Caruso movie!) movie poster as the cyrillic words are `Velikij Karuso` and it means `The Great Caruso`. If you look the figur on the poster, it is not very much like Mario, but the pose and his tie is really similar to, when Mario singing `Celeste Aida` in the movie. 

Do hope that I could help you with my post. 

Best wishes from Susan

[Steff]

Thank you Susan,

You are right, it does not ressemble Mario very much, however, it is a fantastic picture.
I really was not sure since I know a similar picture from "The Young Caruso," which you can find on

http://www.flickr.com/photos/iisg/4075097840/       (a similar one was used for the cover of the DVD release)

Steff

[Armando]

Thanks for trying Steff. I have a vague recollection of Masters as a somewhat stuffy character but, regardless, as Derek pointed out, his absurd criticisms of some of Lanza’s finest singing signifies that any credentials he might have had are totally meaningless.

3AW is a radio station, now totally consisting of talk back. The fact that it advertised Masters program in conjunction with Thomas’ record shop doesn’t surprise me.  

Thomas’ manager was another stuffed shirt, John Cargher, who in 1965 began hosting a radio program, Singers of Renown, that lasted until his death in 2008.

Cargher was a total bluff – he, himself admitted he had no musical credentials.

I had countless exchanges and clashes with him- he hated being caught out! Once he announced that he was going to play an extremely rare tape of  a live performance of  Lanza and Frances Yeend singing Libiamo. 

I was immediately suspicious. To the best of my knowledge the two had never sung the Brindisi from Traviata. Sure enough it turned out to be the Libiamo from the Toast of New Orleans sung by Lanza and Grayson.

I phoned Cargher, told him about his mistake and he hit the roof! “ I bought the tape from a reliable source- and anyway Grayson never sounded that deep!” To which I replied, “You’ve been sold a fake and the reason Grayson sounded deep is because the tape was running slow.” 

Cargher liked Lanza but was extremely concerned about what his stuffed shirt listeners might say if he played his recordings, (he told me he received regular complaints) so on the rare occasions that he would air one of Lanza’s records he would inevitably preface it with “ When he was good he was very, very, good, when he was bad he was horrid!”

I once told him to say something new for a change and stop worrying about the snobs. 

Anyway, enough of this- you get the drift!

                                                                                                                                           This is he!

[Derek McGovern]

Ah, so there was a Cargher-Masters connection! I'd known that Cargher tailored his comments on Lanza to suit the musical snobs in his radio audience, so perhaps he and Master(s) were well suited to each other's company :)

Actually, thinking again about Masters's Student Prince review, since his comments are not only outrageous about Lanza's singing but derogatory about his "uncritical" admirers, perhaps the curmudgeon was simply trying to provoke his readers. After all, there's nothing a newspaper editor likes more than a flood of letters from opposing camps.

Cheers
Derek

[Armando]

Here’s one critic who is not afraid to include Lanza with some other great tenors.

Check out the following link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/opera/8564348/Pavarotti-tenor-who-conquered-the-world.html

[Derek McGovern]

Ciao Armando: Now there's a critic who knows what he's talking about! Intelligent comments about Di Stefano and Carreras too.

I was half-expecting there to be a howl of protest in the comments section -- "How could you include Lanza's name alongside Caruso, Gigli, & co?!" -- but in fact it was quite the opposite! One person was lamenting that Lanza hadn't been captured in the same high fidelity as Pavarotti, while another wrote that Lanza had the voice of the 20th century.

Here's another critic -- this time from more than a half-century ago -- who wasn't afraid to praise Lanza: Ivers Kelly in The (Vancouver) Sun of 30 May 1959. Under the headline "Naturally Beautiful Voice Gives Warmth to Italian Songs," Kelly writes in a review of the then just-released Mario! album that, "The combination of a naturally beautiful voice and technical control [my italics] gives Mario Lanza a leading place among the world's tenors."

Kelly goes to praise the "vocal brilliance" of Lanza's singing on the album, singling out "the emotional Passione, which Lanza gives without sentimental excesses."

Now that review should put a smile on Vince's face!

Here's the link:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LkFlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5IkNAAAAIBAJ&pg=5920,6501988&dq=mario+lanza+ferrara&hl=en

[Steff]

Armando,

Thank you for your explanation.

Incidentally, like Derek I tend to believe that John Master's "Student Prince" review was kind of provocation to get feedback from outraged readers and Lanza fans. Maybe one time, we will find some reader's letters in other issues of "The Age."

Steff  

[E I]

Derek, I just posted a response to the last item that was written.
Thank you and Armando for helping set the record straight. We need to
do even more in this regard. All the best, E

On Jun 4, 6:51 am, Derek McGovern <derek.mcgov...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've just been reading a few pages of a massive discussion thread at amazon
> that involves Lanza:
>
> http://www.amazon.com/forum/opera/ref=cm_cd_et_up_redir?_encoding=UTF...
>
> There's an awful lot of negativity about Lanza there, including the
> regurgitation of the myth that he possessed a small voice. One person claims
> that he was told by Jack Belsom, archivist at the New Orleans Opera, that
> Lanza's two performances as Pinkerton there had to be miked. Absolute
> rubbish! I was in contact with Belsom myself a few years back. I've
> responded to that person, and also to another person, who stated that the
> famous German mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig had claimed in her autobiography
> that she'd sung in concert with Lanza, and that he "couldn't be heard past
> the seventh row."
>
> Outrageous! Ludwig never sang with Lanza, and of course there's overwhelming
> testimony from top conductors, singers and critics alike about the
> more-than-ample size of his voice. But it appears that Ludwig did, in fact,
> write those things -- or at least the claim about him possessing a small
> voice. There's a snippet view of her (German-language) 1998 autobiography<http://www.amazon.de/w%C3%A4re-gern-Primadonna-gewesen-Erinnerungen/d...>available through Google Books, and she states on page 234: "Er hatte eine
> kleine Stimme, ebenso wie Mario Lanza, der ebenfalls eine reine
> Mikrophonkarriere gemacht hat." This roughly translates, if Babelfish is to
> be believed, to "He had a small voice, just like Mario Lanza, who likewise
> had a pure microphone career."
>
> Curiously, however, there's no mention of Lanza in the 1999 English-language
> * Christa Ludwig: In My Own Voice*, which I assume is a translation of the
> 1998 book.
>
> Steff: Perhaps the next time you're in the library, you could look for Ms.
> Ludwig's book and see if the concert claim is really in it. Or, if you're
> feeling* really* brave, you could even contact the 83-year-old grande dame!
> :)
>
> Never a dull moment in the Lanza world...

[Steff]

Hi Armando,

Now here's a question for you. I spotted an article from 1969 (see link below) about an opera singer and teacher, her name Luisa Franceschi-Runge. Interestingly, the article mentions that Mario Lanza was one of her students after her retirement as a singer. I looked up her name in the index of your Mario Lanza biography but couldn't find anything. I wonder at which point she was Lanza's teacher - if at all. Can you enlighten me?

Steff


http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PwBSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kDQNAAAAIBAJ&pg=3918,5853957&dq=luisa+franceschi+runge+mario+lanza&hl=en

[Derek McGovern]

Ciao Emilio: Thanks for your support on that Amazon thread. We seem to have shut the naysayers up for the time being, though like the Hydra of Greek mythology, I'm sure they'll return or pop up elsewhere! It's a neverending battle when it comes to Lanza and the myths that surround him.

Cheers

Derek

[Armando]

Hi Steff,

There’s no mention anywhere of Lanza having studied with Franceschi-Runge. I imagine that she was one of the teachers that Lanza approached, and might even have had a few lessons with, while he was in NewYork in 1945. As we know, at the time he worked with Robert Weede, Grant Garnell, and Polly Robinson, prior to starting studying with Rosati in February 1946.  

 Keep up the good work Steff!

[Savage]

Steff,
Louisa Runge? That's a name I haven't heard or thought of in many, many years. I grew up in suburban Philadelphia and my backdoor neighbor was retired operatic tenor Paul Bleyden. He had a career in Europe in the early twentieth century and then with the Aborn English Grand Opera Company here in the states. He retired early as a result of hearing loss, yet he kept me entertained with frequent singing of phrases from various operas as he walked around his house. Anyway, one day he called me from his porch when I was passing by his house. He was entertaining the Runges and introduced me to Louisa and her husband. They knew I had an interest in singing and we had a long discussion about vocal technique. At Paul Bleyden's suggestion I ended up standing by a piano and singing scales for Louisa Runge. Unfortunately, what emerged did not resemble Mario's scales in Toast of New Orleans. She pegged me as a lyric baritone and then sang some scales herself, finishing with a glorious high note with diminuendo. For a lady in her seventies, it was quite impressive. She talked about her teaching and said that she "made" tenor Eugene Conley. No mention was made of Mario Lanza and I'm convinced she was probably never his teacher. Thank you, Steff, for bringing back the memory of a great afternoon and a fascinating lady.

David

[Savage]

Armando,

     An interesting clip from a biography of vocal coach Clark Harris:
Clark also apprenticed with famed operatic vocal pedagogue, Luisa Franceschi, the only pupil of the great soprano Luisa Tetrazzini. Madame Franceschi counted among her students Zinka Milanov, George London, Eugene Conley and Richard Stillwell.

*****************************************************

If you read my recent reply to Steff, you'll understand my deep regret of not mentioning Mario when I spoke with Louisa Runge.  If she taught George London it's entirely possible that she at least met Mario.  Alas, way to late to remedy the situation. My meeting with Louisa Runge was probably in 1962.

[Derek McGovern]

A message from Susan (Zsa Zsa):

Hi Everybody, 

Surely you have heard about the Mario Lanza programme on the BBC2 broadcast tomorrow, on the 17th, June (Friday) and here is the link where one can listen the programmelive.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006wrrv

Do hope that it will be a good programme; very much waiting to hear it. 

Cheers from Susan

[Tony Partington]

Interesting article from the Allentown Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.  I am not sure how accurate it is though as I do not recall ever reading any quotes from Frances Yeend about Mario and offstage buckets, etc...

 

 

Author:	GEOFF GEHMAN, The Morning Call
Date:	Jan 31, 1999

Lanza starred as Hyde & Jekyll in the Bel Canto Trio, a light- opera act managed by Columbia Artists Inc., a renowned handler of classical musicians. In 1946-47, Lanza, soprano Frances Yeend and bass-baritone George London -- a Lanza military buddy who shared a voice teacher --visited concert halls, gyms and Indian reservations. Yeend was forced to play den mother as Lanza careened from charming child to crude clown. More than once he tried to disrupt her onstage arias by urinating into an offstage bucket.

Such antics apparently failed to trouble a patron of the Allentown Community Concert Association, which since its founding in 1927 had relied on Columbia performers. Soprano Kathyrn Noble was the widow of John Noble, a music lover who once served Lehigh County as deputy coroner. She and her husband first learned of Lanza through the tenor's first regular vocal coach, Irene Williams, a symphonic soloist who later dueted with Nelson Eddy. The Nobles socialized with Philadelphia impresario William K. Huff, the Schnecksville native who booked Lanza's first major break. It was Huff who in 1942 arranged the audition with conductor Serge Koussevitsky that yielded Lanza's opera debut.

[Ed] Sebring forgave Lanza immediately. As he points out, the Elks Club performance was for volunteers, not fans or critics. He didn't know that Lanza despised formal garb. Three weeks after the Allentown date, before a solo recital in Shippensburg, the tenor told pianist Constantine Callinicos, whom he had never met, they would wear business suits because he had forgotten his tuxedo (Despite the violation of classical-music fashion etiquette, Callinicos became Lanza's most trusted accompanist and conductor). In his new biography "Mario Lanza: Tenor in Exile" (Amadeus Press), Roland Bessette notes that throughout his career Lanza avoided dressing up by pleading he'd lost his clothing trunk.

Here's the link to the article: http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/mcall/access/38611000.html?dids=38611000:38611000&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jan+31%2C+1999&author=GEOFF+GEHMAN%2C+The+Morning+Call&pub=Morning+Call&desc=FOR+A+SONG+ALLENTOWN+REMEMBERS+A+FLEETING+BUT+MEMORABLE+PERFORMANCE+BY+MARIO+LANZA&pqatl=google