Lanza as Pinkerton

[Derek McGovern]

While driving to and from work this last week or two, I've been listening to complete recordings of Madama Butterfly (one with Anna Moffo and Cesare Valletti from 1957; the other a 1987 recording with Freni, Carreras, and Pons). Naturally, I imagined as I was listening how Lanza may have sung certain phrases, not to mention the wonderful scene with Sharpless in Act I (Dovunque al Mondo) and the memorable aria Addio, Fiorito Asil - neither of which he recorded,
unfortunately.

But what struck me most is how much bigger the role of Pinkerton is than many commentators would have us believe. Derek Mannering, for example, writes in his Singing to the Gods that, "Apart from an appearance in the opening act, the highpoint of which is his glorious love duet with Cio-Cio San, the tenor does not appear again until the close of the opera." Well, I don't know what opera Mr Mannering has been attending, but Pinkerton makes much more than just "an
appearance" in the first act; he's there the entire time through two long duets (very long in the case of the love duet) and has a great deal of work to do, including quite a lot of ensemble singing. He must also convey a succession of moods ranging from cockiness in the scene with Sharpless to anger when the old Bonzo (or Bonze) shows up, and tenderness and then passion with Butterfly. It's a lot of work, both vocally and dramatically.

As for Pinkerton not reappearing after this act "until the close of the opera", again, Mannering is describing a different work. Pinkerton actually appears from the beginning of Act III (or Act II, Seconda Parte, as it's also known), and has 30 lines of tricky ensemble singing before he has to deliver the difficult aria Addio Fiorito Asil.

So, yes, while Madama Butterfly is a soprano's opera, the tenor's role is still a significant one. In fact, in many ways it was an ideal choice for a man who was making his professional operatic debut. Which brings me to the point of this post: wouldn't it be wonderful to hear from people who actually attended one of Lanza's two performances as Pinkerton at the New Orleans Opera in April, 1948? The youngest reliable witnesses would now have to be in their late 70s, but who knows? One of them might be computer-savvy enough to stumble upon this forum!

It's frustrating that we know so little about Lanza's two performances. We have the glowing newspaper reviews, of course, plus a brief reference to Mario's impressive squillo from the Sharpless at those performances, Jess Walters, who also - I understand - contradicted his comments at one point.

But what of the esteemed conductor Walter Herbert or Tomiko Kanazawa (Butterfly) or Rosalind Nadell (Suzuki)? What did they think of Lanza's singing and acting? They've always been shadowy figures to me. Herbert obviously was
impressed enough to offer Mario the chance to return the following year as Alfredo in La Traviata, but his thoughts on Mario's performances as Pinkerton would have been very interesting. He died in 1975, but I guess it's possible that Kanazawa and Nadell are still alive. (Tomiko Kanazawa later sang Butterfly on NBC Television Opera Theater, while Nadell made a number of recordings, including one as Suzuki to Dorothy Kirsten's Butterfly.)

Incidentally, the New York coach who prepared Mario for this role - Leila Edwards - is, as far as I know, still alive, but is now well into her 90s. In any event, she didn't attend either of Lanza's performances. (Mannering says that this was
because she simply assumed that she would soon be seeing him at the Met, and therefore didn't bother travelling to New Orleans.)

In short, I would love to see more light shed on one of the most important events in Lanza's career! Do others here feel the same way?

[Armando]

Hi Derek, It certainly would be interesting to have some more light
shed on Lanza's Pinkerton performances in New Orleans. As regardless
of the excellent reviews there are some contradictions, including the
one by Jess Walters

Back in 1952, Jess Walters was quoted as saying that Mario was barely
able to finish the opera, ending up hoarse and exhausted. Now, how
believable this is I leave up to all of you to decide. Would Walter
Herbert have signed him up for Traviata the following year if this was
really the case? I don't think so. Even though Traviata, like
Butterfly, is primarily a soprano's opera the tenor still has a fair
amount of singing to do. So why would Herbert risk Lanza running out
of steam instead of using someone else?

It's more likely to have been sour grapes on Walters' part. Let's face
it, in 1952 Lanza was world famous and very rich. Walters was just
another baritone. Years later he spoke in very flattering terms about
Mario, but by then Lanza was dead and the threat was no longer
present.

I remember Dorothy Kirsten's reaction when I tried to bait her by
telling her that I heard that one of the reasons that Mario's didn't
sing in opera was his lack of stamina. She gave me a funny look and
then said, "Are you kidding? He had the strength of a bull and could
sing for hours without ever tiring. On the MGM set he was always
singing!"

It would indeed be interesting to have the comments of Kanazawa and
Nadell, as well as Herbert, on Lanza's two performances as Pinkerton,
but in the absence of these I am quite happy to rely on what a singer
like George London, among others, had to say. London knew Lanza better
than most and was adamant that had Hollywood not intervened, Mario
would have had a major operatic career.



On Dec 15, 2:53 pm, Derek McGovern <derek.mcgov...@gmail.com> wrote:
> (This is a re-post! I was tired when I wrote this last night, and re-
> reading it today, I noticed a few glaring mistakes. So here it is
> again! I've probably mucked up the formatting by re-posting it, but
> what the heck :-))

>
> While driving to and from work this last week or two, I've been
> listening to complete recordings of Madama Butterfly (one with Anna
> Moffo and Cesare Valletti from 1957; the other a 1987 recording with
> Freni, Carreras, and Pons). Naturally, I imagined as I was listening
> how Lanza may have sung certain phrases, not to mention the
> wonderful scene with Sharpless in Act I (Dovunque al Mondo) and the
> memorable aria Addio, Fiorito Asil - neither of which he recorded,
> unfortunately.
>
> But what struck me most is how much bigger the role of Pinkerton is
> than many commentators would have us believe. Derek Mannering, for
> example, writes in his Singing to the Gods that, "Apart from an
> appearance in the opening act, the highpoint of which is his glorious
> love duet with Cio-Cio San, the tenor does not appear again until the
> close of the opera." Well, I don't know what opera Mr Mannering has
> been attending, but Pinkerton makes much more than just "an
> appearance" in the first act; he's there the entire time through two

> long duets (*very* long in the case of the love duet) and has a great

> deal of work to do, including quite a lot of ensemble singing. He
> must
> also convey a succession of moods ranging from cockiness in the scene
> with Sharpless to anger when the old Bonzo (or Bonze) shows up, and
> tenderness and then passion with Butterfly. It's a lot of work, both
> vocally and dramatically.
>
> As for Pinkerton not reappearing after this act "until the close
> of the opera", again, Mannering is describing a different work.

> Pinkerton actually appears from the *beginning* of Act III (or Act

> II,
> Seconda Parte, as it's also known), and has 30 lines of tricky
> ensemble singing before he has to deliver the difficult aria Addio
> Fiorito Asil.
>

> So, yes, while Madama Butterfly *is* a soprano's opera, the tenor's

> role is still a significant one. In fact, in many ways it was an
> ideal
> choice for a man who was making his professional operatic debut.
> Which
> brings me to the point of this post: wouldn't it be wonderful to hear
> from people who actually attended one of Lanza's two performances as
> Pinkerton at the New Orleans Opera in April, 1948? The youngest
> reliable witnesses would now have to be in their late 70s, but who
> knows? One of them might be computer-savvy enough to stumble upon
> this
> forum!
>
> It's frustrating that we know so little about Lanza's two

> performances. We have two glowing newspaper reviews, of course, plus

[Lou]

Hi Armando and Derek: I believe that conductor Herbert wouldn't have
signed up Lanza for the role of Alfredo if he hadn't been impressed by
his performance as Pinkerton. Walters' sour-graping and turnabout
remind me of the disparaging comments of Met soprano Lucine Amara (who
appeared briefly in The Great Caruso) about Lanza's operatic potential
followed a few weeks later by a statement that his was the kind of
quality voice that the Met needed.

I, too, would like to know the comments of members of the cast and/or
audience on Lanza's performances as Pinkerton, but more for the
vicarious thrills I'd get from them than for any evidence they could
provide of Lanza's operatic potential, which we already have in
spades. Armando, seeing how well-researched your biography of Lanza
is, I hesitate to ask this question, but am I right in presuming that
you have asked the help of the New Orleans Opera Association in
locating old-time members who had seen Lanza's Pinkerton?

I have just read A History of Opera in New Orleans, written by
archivist Jack Belsom. It relates that in 1943-1954, when Walter
Herbert led the New Orleans Opera Association, he sought the finest
talent available. The "leading singers" he signed up were named in
one long sentence: Albanese, Flagstad, De los Angeles, Bjorling, Di
Stefano, Tucker, London, Vinay, and Warren, to name a few.
Interestingly, only Lanza merited a whole sentence to himself: "In
April 1948, Mario Lanza made one of the few operatic stage appearances
of his career as Lt. Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly."

> > important events in Lanza's career! Do others here feel the same way?- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Derek McGovern]

Ciao Armando: Can you just refresh my memory as to whom and where Jess
Walters made those disparaging comments in 1952? The fact that he
later said that Mario had the necessary "squillo" to fill that
acoustically challenging auditorium in New Orleans is certainly one
heck of a contradiction.

The only audience member's account that I've read is this one, which
apparently appeared in Opera magazine sometime in the early 1990s: (It
was forwarded to me by Steve Bell of the Opera Parlour group; he
himself heard Lanza in concert 10 years later in Manchester and most
certainly didn't find his unmiked voice small!)

As a young teenager I witnessed both [of Mario's performances]. My
memory is
of a small but beautiful voice in a compact and
handsome frame. The tenor was signed by General
Director Walter Herbert to return in Traviata the
folling season, but Hollywood intervened and he
never sang on the operatic stage again.

JOHN M.GEHL.
New Orleans.

There's no way of verifying that the above is genuine, of course
(especially given the amount of malice on the part of some opera
lovers toward Lanza), but it's reasonable to assume that if the voice
had sounded small, or if Mario had indeed been "hoarse and exhausted"
by the end of the opera, then the opening night critics would
undoubtedly have mentioned this. The only way then that Walters'
contradictions make any sense is if he was referring to the second
performance two days later. But even then it's hard to imagine that
Mario, fresh from months of touring with the Bel Canto Trio - a period
in which he was singing substantial operatic programmes every few days
- would have been exhausted after an hour and a quarter or so of
singing two nights earlier. (Unless he had been out on the town the
evening before his second performance!) And, as you pointed out, we
have Kirsten's first-hand evidence of his vocal stamina just two years
later on The Great Caruso (not to mention the experience of singing
with him in concert she sang with him in, I think, 1948).

But it's a shame that the woman who coached Mario for the role of
Pinkerton wasn't present at those performances. Leila Edwards'
comments would have sealed the matter once and for all. Let's not
forget, though, what she told Mannering in 2004: "And make no mistake:
his voice would have filled the Met. I get so angry when I hear people
suggest it was a small voice. It was magnificent...big and
round...with limitless power. Mario could have sung in any opera house
in the world had he chosen to."

[Armando]

Hi Lou,

Your question as whether I tried to locate the artists that appeared
with Mario in New Orleans, is a legitimate one. I did phone the New
Orleans Opera in 1977, and was told to get in touch with Columbia
Artists Managent, MCA, and other agencies representing various
artists. Unfortunately, this led to absolutely no-where as I couldn't
establish any connection whatsoever with any of the singers in
question. In the end I decided to rely entirely on the reviews ,and
coach Leila Edwards account of her teaching Lanza the role.

It might have been easier to locate these singers had I been living in
America.

[Armando]

Hi Derek,

The remarks by Walters about Mario' New Orleans performances were made
to music critic Richard Law in 1952. Law reported them in the Opera
Magazine edition of June, 1993.
Steve Bell's letter followed in the July edition, and John M Gehl
letter was in the August edition.

I believe the Gehl letter is genuine, but at the same time I would
like to point out that any singer's voice heard live will sound
smaller if compared with the recorded voice.
In time, and after attending a number of live performances, one gets
used to it, but I wonder whether a young teenager would have been a
sufficiently experienced opera goer to make allowances for the
difference in volume.

One also has to bear in mind that a singer with a certain amount of
intelligence will pace him/herself in order to last for the entire
performance. In order to do this there's always a tendency to hold
back a little and not sing at full capability.

Other things to be taken into consideration are the size and acoustics
of the hall. The Municipal Auditorium had a 2710 seat capacity, which
is a heck of a size compared to theatres like La Scala, Vienna, Covent
Garden, and the Rome Opera that had an average capacity of 2200 seats.
And on top of it, the New Orleans Auditorium had rather abysmal
acoustics.

Coach Leila Edwards really said it all when she stated ""And make no

mistake:
his voice would have filled the Met. I get so angry when I hear
people
suggest it was a small voice. It was magnificent...big and
round...with limitless power. Mario could have sung in any opera
house
in the world had he chosen to."

[Derek McGovern]

Coincidentally, the same Jack Belsom - archivist of the New Orleans
Opera Association - mentioned in Lou's post of December 16 here,
contacted me yesterday after a friend of his had alerted him to a
message of mine on the Opera-L forum.

Mr Belsom is a most obliging fellow! He's very kindly offered to do
some digging for me in New Orleans to see what first-hand accounts of
Lanza's performances as Pinkerton he can uncover. I've told him that I
would particularly like to know how well Lanza's projected throughout
that vast auditorium, as well (of course!) any comments regarding the
quality of Lanza's singing and his portrayal of Pinkerton.

Incidentally, Jack Belsom was a close friend of the same John Gehl
(now deceased) whose letter to Opera magazine we were discussing
earlier in this thread. Jack does not recall John Gehl ever making any
comment about Lanza sounding hoarse or exhausted in his performances
as Pinkerton, and he feels certain that had this been the case, his
friend would certainly have told him. Equally interesting is the fact
that both Jack Belsom and John Gehl worked as ushers at Lanza's New
Orleans recital three years later! He writes that this took place in
the large side of the Municipal Auditorium and the papers reported an
audience of 5300 with some seated onstage. Among the selections Lanza
sang that evening were Vesti la Giubba, Be My Love, Because, O Sole
Mio - and Boom Biddy Boom Boom!

Another interesting comment Jack made was that the Municipal
Auditorium contained no real orchestral (ie, sunken) pit. As Armando's
pointed out to me privately, couple that problem with the relatively
poor acoustics there and it's amazing that the singers could be heard
at all!

> > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

[Mike McAdam]

Veddy interesting news re New Orleans. In the first instance from our
Thesis-dodging, Mario-distracted but eminently-lovable Kiwi. Then
some
follow-ups of real interest from Armando including some surprising
insights
and tidbits (no 'tits' allowed in Canada...only 'tids' :-)).

Mario's performance, the logistics, the auditorium adjustments and
sound
enhancements...all make sense to me. I remember my uncle Ken (a Lanza
nut)
saying he was used to seeing Frankie Vaughan, Petula Clark et al
standing in
front of mike stands. I, not being interested (or knowing a lot about)
Lanza
at the time, distinctly remember him going on to my mum about the
concert in
Manchester he attended (only an hour by road from Blackpool). I
remember he
remarked on the absence of a microphone, the cane Mario used and the
way he
just suddenly appeared onstage next to the piano yakking to
Costa....without any fanfare
or announcement.
I've just decided I *will* send him a Christmas card today or tomorrow
with
a short letter asking him for his recollections of that concert (I
said
about a year ago I would do that but never did).
Cheers, M

> ...
>
> read more >>- Hide quoted text -

[Armando]

As I said in a private e-mail to Mike, if Muriel is our resident poet,
then Ill nominate him as our resident wit! There's nothing like a few
lines from Mike to brighten up the Day!

> ...
>
> read more >>

[Lou]

I second the nomination, Armando!

[Muriel]

"Veddy" good, Michael. I'll go along with Lou and Armando.

I have to give Derek credit for pursuing answers to questions about
Mario's operatic debut (even though he should have been writing those
last few thousand words on his thesis!). It's wonderful that he did
have a reply from someone who just might help in this area. This is
one quality that this group has over any other in the Lanza world - we
are proactive about seeking the truth about Mario's musical history.
(I say "we" only because we have no other agenda except to make sure
Mario ends up in his rightful place in the world of music - an artist
to be reckoned with!) Now, poetic or not, it's the truth!!! Bella
sera...Muriel

[Aline staires]

Hi All: As there seems to be a lot of undiscovered info re Mario's past accomplishments out there and Derek seems to be able to unearth it, I'm wondering if there's any thing to dig up re his Canadian tours with the Bel Canto Trio. Michael, do you suppose there might be something buried in the CBC archives somewhere? Worth looking into,d'ya think???   Aline PS. Derek, did I do it right this time???

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Aline: You did indeed do it right!

Good question regarding Mario's Canadian appearances. Who would have
thought that his 1948 Toronto concert (well, half of it) would turn up
a decade ago? So I guess anything's possible, and don't forget that
apart from Mario's Bel Canto Trio performances in Canada, he also sang
in Toronto and Ottawa in 1946 and in Quebec in 1947. He obviously
liked your country!

When the archivist from the New Orleans Opera Association returns from
overseas in mid-January, I'm going to ask him to check if (by any
*remote* chance!) either of Mario's performances in Madama Butterfly
were recorded. The New Orleans Opera certainly did record performances
there at that time; in fact, as Lou discovered, they've released a CD
of some of these live recordings. It's a heck of a long shot, I know,
but I definitely will ask him just the same.

Merry Christmas, everyone: I'll be back on deck on the 26th once I
return from thesis hibernation. Keep up the interesting posts in my
absence!

Cheers
Derek

[Derek McGovern]

Jack Belsom, archivist of the New Orleans Opera, got back to me
yesterday regarding Lanza's performances as Pinkerton there in 1948.
Sadly, he confirmed that neither of the performances was recorded,
though - frustratingly! - he mentioned that some of the New Orleans
productions at that time *were* broadcast and that tapes of them have
occasionally surfaced.

But he did speak to one woman who attended Mario's second (Saturday
night) performance on April 10th, 1948, and she confirmed that his
voice was certainly "adequate in size and she has absolutely no
recollection of his getting hoarse".

Jack Belsom also mentioned that Lanza performed at several Summer Pops
concerts in New Orleans in June 1947, singing, among other things, O
Soave Fanciulla and M'Apparì. Oh, what wouldn't I give to hear a live
Lanza version of the latter!

[Muriel]

Hi Derek: You said earlier that Mr. Belsom was an usher at Mario's
recital in New Orleans a couple of years after his Butterfly debut. I
didn't notice that he described that recital? Did he say anything, or
more importantly, was he impressed with Mario's performance?

Can there be an outside chance that the opera *was* recorded and it is
stashed away, forgotten? We can always hope for a miracle, can't we? I
have no doubt that Mario's voice was strong that that time, so it's
difficult to believe that he could have sounded hoarse or tired. That
has to be the wishful thinking of a person wanting to spread an
untruth, for whatever reason. There are those who will forever try to
undermine his musical quality.

Yes! I'd had loved to have heard him sing M'Appari. Oh, how I love his
recording of that aria!

Perhaps Mr. Belsom will come across something more in the future....

Ciao for now...Muriel

> On Fri, Dec 21, 2007 at 8:38 PM, Derek McGovern

> > > -------Original Message-------

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Muriella: I did ask Jack Belsom - twice, in fact - about Mario's
singing at his 1951 New Orleans recital, but he didn't really offer
much in the way of comment about it. I didn't want to push it, as he'd already
been extremely generous with his time - searching out members of the
Madama Butterfly audience for me, for example. But he did mention that
Bjoerling,
whom he'd seen in Trovatore at the New Orleans Opera the previous
year, was then "the gold standard" of tenors as far as he was concerned, so
I got the impression from him that he wasn't particularly interested in Lanza.

I guess it's always possible that Madama Butterfly was broadcast,
especially since
- thanks to Mr. Belsom - we now know that *some* New Orleans Opera productions
at the time received this treatment. So let's leave ourselves just a
glimmer of hope, shall
we? :-) After all, as I've written before, we never would have
imagined a decade ago
that half of Lanza's 1948 Toronto concert would emerge! (And what a
magnificent concert
that turned out to be!!)

[Derek McGovern]

Well, I'm a day early, but tomorrow is April 8th here in New Zealand,
and that marks the 60th anniversary of Lanza's first performance as
Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with the New Orleans Opera Association.
What an auspicious occasion that must have been! Certainly, few
leading tenors making their professional debut have received reviews
as glowing as that written by Laurence Oden the following day in the
St. Louis News:

"Mario Lanza performed his duties as Lieut. Pinkerton with
considerable verve and dash. Rarely have we seen a more superbly
romantic leading tenor. His exceptionally beautiful voice helps
immeasurably. The general run of the mill succeed only in
disillusioning an audience. The combination of good looks and vocal
ability should prove most helpful to Mr. Lanza in any of his more
earnest undertakings."

Not bad for a 27-year-old stripling!

I can think of no better way to mark this occasion than listening to
Mario's live rendition of the Butterfly Love Duet with Frances Yeend
just eight months before this event. (It's in our Files section.)
After all, it's as close as we're ever going to get to being in that
vast New Orleans Municipal Auditorium that magical spring evening!

Happy Anniversary!

[Heidi]

Dear Derek
Thank you so much for remembering us to this day and the great music
from Puccini and Mario.This duet is one of my favorites.
Cheers heidi

[Muriel]

Happy Anniversary, indeed! I wonder if Mario were here today, would he
celebrate this very special day? Definitely, and we should as well!

As I recently viewed this opera on TV with James Valenti, it is fresh
in my mind. As a matter of fact, I played the tape I made of it the
other evening, as I had thought Mr. Valenti had some difficulty with
his upper register and I wanted to check that. Happily, I was
mistaken. He was fine.

But - although I have no complaints about his performance, he's still
no Mario. Tonight I listened to the Hollywood Bowl recording as Derek
had suggested. Here he was, a mere four months after performing in New
Orleans, and I'm sure he gave a close reprise of that operatic event.
In fact, all of his HB treatments sound like a young man seriously
intent on a career in opera. That very night he had nothing more on
his mind except to sing these classic arias and duets for many years
to come. (Then, how things changed the next day!!)

I appreciate this Butterfly Duet more and more, every time I hear it.
To my ears, he is flawless and blends seamlessly with Ms. Yeend.
Playing it over several times, I closed my eyes and pictured him,
handsome in his uniform, on the operatic stage, singing and gently
comforting his new wife to put aside her fears and worries. By the
last two minutes of the duet, his pleas to her become more
impassioned, until both their voices build up to a breathtaking,
electrifying conclusion. We could not ask for a more sensational and
perfect ending, could we?

The picture of Mario now on the homepage is quite interesting. Mr.
Herbert and Ms. Kanazawa are looking directly at the camera, and it
seems like Mario is getting into his Pinkerton mode already! How fun!

Yes, this a good day to revisit Mario's recordings and his performance
in TONO as well. ....Ciao ..........Muriel

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Muriella and Heidi: Thanks for your comments! I just couldn't let
this very special anniversary pass without comment.

Yes, the 1947 Vogliatemi Bene features magnificent singing from Lanza
-- and Frances Yeend is impressive too. She may not have had the most
voluptuous voice in the world, but she was a very fine singer and an
excellent vocal partner for Mario. (I actually like one of her solos
from this concert very much: she does a lovely rendition of an aria
from von Weber's Der Freischutz.) We owe both her and George London a
debt of gratitude, I feel, for helping Lanza to grow as an artist
during his extended concertizing with them.

Actually, the entire duet (and I wish they'd started it from the very
beginning!) has to be one of the most difficult in Italian opera --
and certainly in Puccini -- requiring real vocal heft from both
singers, stamina, passion, and (if possible) a sensational high C at
the end. For the tenor who sings Pinkerton, it comes after an already
demanding amount of singing -- especially in the long scene with
Sharpless -- so it's little wonder that the top names who have sung
the role insist that its difficulty is not be underestimated. In many
ways, it was a perfect choice for Mario in which to make his debut.

I'm glad you like our current home page photo, Muriella! Mario looks
terrific here, and Tomiko makes a most attractive Butterfly. I think
I'll leave this pic up for the entire month!

Cheers
Derek