Compare Lanza's singing of "È il sol dell’anima....Addio! Addio!" with that of Pavarotti & Björling

[Derek McGovern]

I've just created a new page on which Lanza's live (1949) performance of "È il sol dell’anima . . . Addio! Addio!" from Verdi's Rigoletto can be compared alongside renditions by Pavarotti and Björling.

To make things fairer, all three versions are live performances, and the tenors are of similar ages here: 28 (Lanza), 31 (Pavarotti) and 34 (Björling).

Of course, it should be borne in mind that Lanza's singing partner here---18-year-old amateur Mary Jane Smith---is certainly not in the same league as Renato Scotto and Bidu Sayão, Pavarotti's and Björling's celebrated sopranos, respectively :) Pavarotti's and Björling's renditions are also taken from complete performances of Rigoletto, giving them a considerable advantage over a concert performance by a tenor who had never sung the role of the Duke on stage.  

So how does the young Lanza stack up in comparison with the more experienced Pavarotti and Björling?

Here's the link:

http://www.mariolanzatenor.com/addio-addio.html 

[Derek McGovern]

P.S. A while back Steff discovered that Lanza and Mary Jane Smith were actually photographed together in 1949 at the 25th anniversary celebrations of MGM: 

[jora...@gmail.com]

Another real tough one, you devil.....but I'll give it a shot:

I usually find Pav too robotic or mechanical for my taste but in this case, I will give him a slight nod over Mario. His voice seemed brighter and more clear whereas Mario seemed a little nasal to me. Bjorling was also quite nice but he copped out on the ending. All three were very enjoyable and close, but I will go with Pav#1, Mario#2 and Bjorling #3.

 

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Joe: Thanks for your comments. 

I don't detect any nasal quality in Mario's voice here; I wonder if it's the slightly muffled reproduction that's making you hear that?

I'm attaching an MP3 of a different reproduction of the same performance. It's much brighter and more "in your face". I'll be interested to know if you still hear that nasal quality!

Cheers.

Derek

[jora...@gmail.com]

Yesssssssssssss, that's the Mario I know!....much better, very clear (as well as a few scratches) and VERY good. Who was the soprano? Thanks, and you were correct Derek: I interpreted the muffled phrases as being nasal. My bad.

[Derek McGovern]

Joe: The soprano was Mary Jane Smith (born 1931), an 18-year-old MGM starlet at the time. You can see a blurry photo of Ms. Smith (real name Alma Luise) at the MGM 25th birthday celebrations earlier in this thread, and there's a 1946 article on her here (courtesy of Lee Ann), with a somewhat better photo: 

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/17991805 

According to the above article (which gets her age wrong by a year), Smith impressed Lanza's long-time vocal coach Giacomo Spadoni with her singing, which is described as "the voice of an angel." (A shame that quality doesn't come through in her performance with Lanza!) 

She was subsequently signed by MGM, with the inevitable hope of making her a new Deanna Durbin, but her career seems to have amounted to uncredited roles in half a dozen or so movies from 1947 to 1950. She then married a Technicolor employee named Richard Shirley and remained with him until his death last year. (Steff discovered that tidbit.) I presume her singing career, such as it was, took a back seat to her marriage and the demands of parenthood (she and Shirley had five children). 

Cheers,

Derek