Tis a shame that Mario did not put a little enthusiasm into this "audition"...lol...I just loved it, rough patches and all! I now wonder if there may be some other "auditions" kicking around. I am glad you also enjoyed it, Mike!
The other test recordings that Lanza made for RCA in June 1945 (and presumably at the same session as Mattinata) were E Lucevan le Stelle, Vesti la Giubba, and I'm Falling in Love with Someone. I've had these on a tape for years, and they're also on the CD "The Lord's Prayer," put by Damon Lanza Productions. (That CD, by the way, also includes a Flower Song -- supposedly from later in 1945, according to Bill Ronayne's liner notes, but which was actually recorded in 1949 for the soundtrack of Toast.)
Did anyone else notice that Mario botched the lyrics? He sang "Ove tu sei la luce manca . Ove tu sei, nasce l'amor." each time , omitting "ove non sei." Errors aside, this is a beautiful recording. Thanks for the tip.
David
It's no big deal, though, and many famous singers have forgotten their words in performance. Tenor Josef Locke once told the amusing story of his singing "Questa o Quella" in English at a concert and forgetting "the bloody words." So what did he do? He starting singing gibberish, slipping in the odd Italian word "to make it sound authentic." The next day, he was lauded by the local music critic for his ability to switch languages in mid-aria! Just goes to show...
Cheers
Derek
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Hi Derek. There is also the story in the biography of Kathleen Ferrier who when singing "Where Ere You Walk forgot her lines and sang the first thing that came into her head which was "where ere they eat the grass" Unfortunately she had to repeat it twice more so if no one noticed the first time they certainly did by the time the phrase had ended.
Regards Jan
P S Have had trouble with eyesight and computer so my wings have been clipped a bit as regards the forum lately | ||
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Since we're on the topic ;) I also noticed that Lanza, in the 1947 hollywood bowl performance, oddly, in "e lucevan le stelle," pronounces the line, 'discioglea dai veli' as 'discioleaBA dai veli.'
I do wonder, though, if Mario's problems with his left eye (which, incidentally, often looks half-closed in many of Vince's screen captures) sometimes caused him to misread words. For example, he sings "rosco riso" instead of "roseo riso" on the Otello Monologue. There isn't any such word in Italian as "rosco" (though I remember that my native Italian lecturer at university had to consult his dictionary to check), so unless it was a misprint in Lanza's score, the odds are that he simply read it that way.
Correction to the above: I should have written, "It's amazing to think that at the SAME session Lanza managed to scale everything back...".
Derek,
I agree with Derek that Lanza develop his style virtually from the start. With few exceptions, in almost any other tenor one can hear traces of Caruso, Gigli or Bjorling and, in some instances, almost exact copies of certain singer E.G. Di Stefano-Carreras. Lanza was no doubt influenced by many singers but interpretably (flaws and all) he was an original, and this, for me, is the mark of a great artist.
ArmandoHello everybody! Firstly it's great after all these years to hear a "new" recording, great stuff!Yes! I think this is an alternate 1945 RCA demo, that possibly made it's way to MGM for some sort of demo purpose. The lyric mistake on "tu" for "non" is something he didn't repeat & I think is the biggest hint that it is the same session in 1945. Mario's 1949 & Great Caruso recordings of "Mattinata" have the correct "non" lyric & he also has that slightly unpolished technique pre Rosati, don't get me wrong it's still Mario & I love it but he was a different singing animal after Rosati, what a teacher!Great work, Derek, yet again in bringing us this rarity!