Re: Miscellaneous Lanza-related comments (October 2014-January 2015)
Derek McGovern
Derek McGovern
Barnabas Nemeth
Derek McGovern
Steff
Derek McGovern
leeann
Speck taught Lanza, Eddie Fisher, Fabian, Bobby Rydell, Jimmy Darren, and Frankie Avalon--the rock and roll hall-of-famers who came out of South Philadelphia--as well as other students who became classical singers (Enrico Di Giuseppi, for example, who later toured with Goldovsky and sang at the Met).
"Most of us singers came from a five block area in South Philly," according to Avalon. "Mr. Speck liked us Italian kids and taught us everything we know about music." (See attachment)
Mr. Speck was a strict teacher who didn't like rock and roll. It would be interesting to know what he thought of Lanza.
Derek McGovern
Derek McGovern
Derek McGovern
Vincent Di Placido
leeann
And here's a current bit of coverage. Philadelphia journalist Thom Nichols has written Legendary Locals of Center City Philadelphia
and is currently conducting book talks and signings around the city.
Mario Lanza is on the cover of his book, and a screenshot is attached of the viewable, copyrighted entry for Lanza. (thank you, Amazon :)) Since subsequent pages aren't reproduced in the book preview, I don't know if the entry continues, but I would guess not, given the length of other entries.
And so, Nichols quote on Lanza comes from Hedda Hopper--so be it; her coverage of Lanza, over time, certainly ranges from sympathetic and accurate to sharply critical, to hypotheticals about his projects and work, and to just plain rumours and gossip-mongering. I suppose, if it could be sorted out, there must have been tension in her reporting between her own relationship with Lanza and her hard-core, sometimes cut-throat, dedication to her profession as a Hollywood columnist.
Derek McGovern
leeann
Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, is known for his warnings to university students about not citing Wikipedia in their papers and research, telling them, "Citing an encyclopedia for an academic paper at the University level is not appropriate – you aren’t 12 years old any more, it’s time to step up your game and do research in original sources." and sometimes, with more exasperation, " ‘For God sake, you’re in college; don’t cite the encyclopedia.’"
It seems kind of silly to add "and absolutely don't even think about plagiarizing entire sections if you're writing a book!" At that point, an author really ought to know better.
Derek McGovern
These articles are fascinating! That review is just incredible of "You Do Something To Me", were these critics deaf?
Vincent Di Placido
I'll definitely check out the Rense/Perigo program today, I've enjoyed Lindsay's other appearances on Rense's show & he has hinted on pure vowels before & it is a fascinating topic. I remember even as a young boy being amazed at Mario's pure singing of the word "new" at the climax of "I'll Be Seeing You",
"I'll find you in the morning sun & when the night is NEW"
It's sends shivers down my spine & he gives just the right emphasis on "sun" as well :-)
I have a kind of video Jukebox of all Mario's clips at my fingertips with the genius of Sony's playstation hard drive which plays back music & video clips beautifully, I know Armando loved this feature :-)
Well a few nights ago we had just finished watching something & I started playing Mario clips, his gentle crooning of "Surriento" from TGC, his intense "Dio Mi Potevi", his heroic 2nd Shower of Stars appearance, Purdom miming to amazing recordings of "Beloved", "Serenade", "Golden Days", "I'll Walk With God", Mario again on "O Paradiso", his seductive "'A Vucchella" with those smoldering eyes :-), on & on & I became teary eyed at the absolute magic of voice, charisma, looks, talent & expressiveness! I said to Aoife he was too good, that was his downfall with critics he was too good, it's beyond the usual run of the mill & some of them couldn't hear & get it, he was too good! I always say to Aoife after a Lanza performance something like "what a voice, he almost electrocutes me with excitement, it's so alive & golden & electric!" I can't help or stop the words coming out (she must be tired of hearing me say it)
I "get" him & I love him!
Tony Partington
On Friday, October 3, 2014 10:37:16 AM UTC-5, Derek McGovern wrote:
This is for all general Lanza-related comments that you feel don't require their own separate thread.
Derek McGovern
Vincent Di Placido
I just finished listening to Jeff & Lindsay's show, I loved it but with all due respect to Jeff he needs to let Lindsay talk more, I wanted more Perigo!
I had a feeling "I'll Be Seeing You" would come up in a discussion about Lanza's honest vowels. I loved all the selections, of course I would have preferred the Caruso soundtrack "Because" which is just spectacular, but overall I liked the selection. One of my guilty pleasures was in there in the shape of "Marcheta" corny old song that it is, BUT Mario does what he does best & breathes new life into it & makes it so passionate & exciting. That reprise on "All has been sadness with you Marcheta each day finds me lonely & blue. My poor heart is broken..." My god what heart Mario had, he moves me so much, listening to him is an event ,it slaps you in the face & makes you feel alive!
I found myself really appreciating the "wild" "Beloved" more than I have before, in fact I have listened to it a few times just there & Mario was on the money as regards the context of the Prince's character's development at that point & that performance in that scene would indeed have been breathtaking BUT as standalone recordings, the retake is the winner for me though, it is perfection. Mario toning it down was still full of more passion than several other singers combined :-)
Tony Partington
Derek McGovern
Vincent Di Placido
Derek McGovern
norma
Norma
Derek McGovern
leeann
We pretty much know by now how much Lanza's argument with Student Prince director Bernhardt (among other arguments with other people) cost him when he fought for a less restrained version of the song and Bernhardt disagreed. Later, Lanza did admit Bernhardt was right, but not then and for so many reasons related to the studio, to the director, and to other events in his life (An American Tragedy, p 165+).
It was interesting to find a feature length article with indirect allusions to that time written from Rome in 1957, shortly after the completion of Seven Hills of Rome. Lanza talked with Henry Thody. The article is pretty typical of the sort of feature stories about celebrities written in those days, meaning in part, that it's hard to know what Lanza actually said and what the author recrafted to fit his writing style and his wish to attract readers--but it seems more revealing than the repetitive snippets from syndicated gossip columnists, for sure.
In any event, like so much newspaper coverage about Lanza that year with his move to Italy, the article focused a great deal on Lanza's reformation from a "bad boy" image to a cleaned up, thinner (of course, the weight thing always has to come in), cooperative person. Lanza's public relations that year--wherever it originated--emphasized new beginnings.
Lanza' s conversation with Thody reveals a self-awareness. It points too, I think, to his sense of artistic intelligence and integrity. He also had some penetrating insights into the movie industry--about the demise of the old studio system, where it had been, and where he felt it was going.
Asked how he felt towards Hollywood, Lanza replied that he was angry about his treatment there,
...I believe a new Hollywood is fast rising. TV sent a lot of the old studio bosses tumbling. ...The new Hollywood is becoming controlled by talent, not dictators. The bosses I scrapped with have tumbled. Today actors get a say in how films should be made. When I tried to do that I was told to keep my mouth shut. When I didn't, I was kicked out.
...I am not bitter. I have made mistakes. But today there is a new Lanza...a new man born from the experience of the past.
lawrenc...@rocketmail.com
Last weekend I attended a showing of the film by Barney Snow: “Some Day I’ll Find You,” about the search for the person, AJW, responsible for the sketches, as discussed here earlier. It was said that a quarter of a million were placed mainly around the Black Country, over the last forty years. It was a most enjoyable evening with excerpts from Mario Lanza films, with Barney Snow and the ex-policeman, who did the investigating in the film, answering questions at the end. There were also original sketches on beer mats and postcards etc. we were allowed to handle. I was unable to obtain any, but the entrance ticket, with a Mario beer mat as a jig-saw, I thought was attractive and collectable, reflecting Snow’s artistic training. I suppose these sketches would be easy for someone with artistic bent to fake, but blank beer mats were supplied with marker pens and a contest to see who could make the best copy; of the twenty or thirty submitted none were very convincing.
I was going to give some background about the Black Country and, to put it politely, the “rivalry” between the Black Country and Birmingham (UK) concerning the showing referred to here earlier, but I do tend to bore people. Also I am not sure I should go into detail about the film at the risk of spoiling it for others who may want to see it. It was said that AJW was around nineteen years old when he started and was about sixty-five when the film was made. There was film of his hands making a sketch forty years ago on a news programme and again when the film was made. The hands were grimy, typical of someone working in engineering, and that is what the Black Country was famous for. Both times he left a gap between the “L” and the “A” in Lanza, an indication that the sketches are genuine.
I was amused on several occasions; a woman in the audience asked Snow if AJW is a Black Countryman, “I mean is he one of us?” highlighting the identity Black Country people embrace. One of the sketches had: “At the end of his life Picasso painted little blue circles in the corner of his pictures; there was a simple explanation for this: The man was crackers.” Two people said they had come across sketches in the past and never thought to pick them up.
Derek McGovern
Derek McGovern
lawrenc...@rocketmail.com
On Friday, October 3, 2014 4:37:16 PM UTC+1, Derek McGovern wrote:
norma
Thanks to everyone Norma
Armando
Hi Norma: With Derek out of action for a few days I’ll answer your question about Marcheta.
As far as I know he recorded the song only once for his Coca Cola Radio program in March, 1952.
The song is on the CD Mario Lanza –When Day is Done, which is available on Amazon on the following link:
Cheers,
Armando
opust...@yahoo.com
On Friday, November 28, 2014 2:16:26 PM UTC-5, norma wrote:
I understand that Mario sang Marcheta twice-once on the coca cola show and once live. On which radio programme did he sing it live and is it on a CD? Thanks to everyone. Norma.
norma
Thanks for everything you do on the forum
Norma
Armando
Hi Norma: I don’t use Spotify, but from what you are saying it sounds to me as if the supposedly multiple versions are simply the same one taken from different pirated CDs and downloaded at different speeds. This would account for the higher sounding voice on the particular one you are referring to. Believe me, Lanza made only one recording of Marcheta- the Coca Cola one.
Cheers,
Armando
norma
Steff
“A RARE TREAT.”
I just wanted to tell you that Johanna von Koczian was among the guests in a Late Night Show (“Markus Lanz”) here on German TV tonight. She did talk very little about her career (time is limited anyway when there are several guest to be interviewed within an hour – and consequently the comments are more or less general).
One focus was on a song (Schlager) which she sang in 1977 and which was very popular here and with which she – after so many years - is still associated by more than only one generation, “Das bisschen Haushalt.”
She mentioned her father (she was from his 4th marriage) and how wonderful a man (and a very good looking, too!) he was, but also remarked that he did not want her to become an actress. She responded by telling him that she would become an actress in any case by the time of reaching her legal age, and that his “refusal” would only delay the start of her career, so her father eventually gave in to her wish. She made her stage debut at about 1952.
Johanna did not talk about any movies or TV films she appeared in in the past, neither did she speak about any future plans.
It was gratifying to hear that she’s in excellent health and goes to the gym three times a week. She turned 81 last October. She was very natural in her looks, no make-up hiding her age (her blonde hair was pinned up loosely – and no “grande dame allures” at all).
When she speaks (she has still the same soft voice) and smiles (those smiling eyes!) one can still see this lovely young girl that co-starred with Mario in his last film, “For the First Time.”
Just recently Johanna gave a lecture at a German theatre, reading short stories written by herself and other authors. As you can see, she’s still “in business” – no one of Mario’s leading ladies could surpass her in this! – and she can look back to a career spanning more than sixty years!
Seeing her “live” on TV was a real rarity!
I suppose that the show will be available as a “re-play” at the beginning of next week and you should be able then to watch it even if you do not live in Germany. I will let you know then.
Steff
Armando
Good to know that Johanna is still very active, Steff, and thank you for the update.
I wonder what happened to that autobiography she was supposedly writing!
Armando
Steff
Steff
Armando
She has aged gracefully without resorting to face lifts or plastic surgery which make many celebrities simply look ridiculous!
Steff
Steff
Armando
Hi, Steff: That’s an interesting subject you brought up. Firstly, it’s essential to distinguish nasality from nasal resonance. Nasality implies singing almost entirely through the nose and that’s a no-no! It’s a sign of lack of technique and such a singer would have a very short career, if any.
Domingo is a case in point. He does sound nasal, mostly in his mid- range, but, although the sound is not particularly beautiful at times, it is nasal resonance and not nasality as such, or Domingo would have stopped singing a long time ago.
Mr. Blizzart is mistaken in attributing to both Wunderlich and Lanza nasality used in beautiful ways. What it is, instead, is the most beautiful of nasal resonance.
Cheers,
Armando
Tony Partington
Derek McGovern
Steff
It is nice to see that Mario Lanza is not forgotten. There was a history book published just recently (December 2015), titled “Scranton – The First 150 Years 1866-2016” which celebrates Scranton’s 150th anniversary. Among the approximately 250 photos there’s one of Mario visiting (with Sam Weiler) a local record store (1951):
“I submitted two photos taken inside the Globe Store during the mid-1950s. One included in the publication was a photo of Mario Lanza’s visit to the Globe record department prior to a performance at the former Catholic Youth Center, which appeared on page 87 in the publication.” (As told by Helen Gohsler, a former Globe Store employee who provided the photo of Mario for the book) (source: http://thetimes-tribune.com/opinion/letters/your-opinion-1.2004021)
For more information about the book please follow the link below:
The photo of Mario is different to the one that Armando has included in the first (also second?) edition of his book “Mario Lanza – An American Tragedy” (photo no.113) Mario is blowing kisses to his many fans. Sam Weiler is not with Mario “on the stage” on this photo but can be spotted among the enthusiastic crowd, on Mario’s right.
Tony Partington
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leeann
See attached screenshot, 14-across: 1951 #1 Mario Lanza hit with lyrics written b 36-down. And so, going to 36-down: See 14 across. Hmmm. Maybe not as hard as some of Derek's "Quizzes About Mario Lanza" on the website.
leeann
Carreras’s parents didn’t go to the opera when he was growing up, but as a child he did happen to see Mario Lanza in the film The Great Caruso, and it changed his life. “I was six and I wanted to be him, so I would spend hours singing 'le donna e mobile’ in the bathroom.”
Does he wonder what might have become of his life if he hadn’t by chance seen that film? “I don’t know, I think I would still have been drawn to the arts. I don’t think I would have been a footballer, though I have always been passionate about it.”
Tony Partington
Wonderful! Glad to see Mario in the NY Times.
Ciao!
Tony
Steff
Tony Partington
Thanks for the post Steff!
Tony
Tony Partington
--
Steff
Charles W. Harrison - Tenor
Amazing, what beautiful sound a voice can still produce in its mid-70s!
Watch out for the American tenor Charles W. Harrison (1878 – 1965), one of the first recording artists – and without doubt one of the busiest and most industrious ones - of the acoustic era. He made his first recordings in 1911 and his last ones in 1954! Apparently he never followed a career on the opera stage, so similar to Mario Lanza he was a tenor “in a category of his own,” so to speak.
In May 1954 – a few months before Harrison turned 76 - his LP album was released titled “Charles Harrison Sings Again” containing 8 songs, among them, interestingly, 4 songs that Mario Lanza also recorded. Here they are, and I think they are just beautifully sung (at the piano: George Blake) which can especially be said about his rendition of D’Hardelot’s “Because.” Harrison still has a very good voice control. A voice which was taken good care of for many decades, I’d say.
Steff
“Because” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh4NYIIVN3I
“Somewhere a Voice is Calling” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlmKrTwDD34
“Song of Songs” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCwnlNUSlYM
“For You Alone” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUDmEZjKg6k
Steff Walzinger
Here’s an excerpt from the book “The Twilight of Belcanto” written by Leonardo Ciampa
(Act II “Journey – Interludio: Other Rosati Students – Mario Lanza)
I think this book was never mentioned here before, but I noticed that Ciampa’s opinion about Mario Lanza’s “Mattinata” was included years ago on two other threads of this forum.
“[…] Lanza’s forays into classical music were „a mixed bag.“ Among the less successful examples are his butchering of ‘Mattinata’: wrong notes, and a diction that can barely be called Italian.
But a staggering example of Lanza’s classical potential can be heard in his recordings of Scenes 2 & 3 from Act III of ‘Otello,’ with the great Licia Albanese. If you think I am crazy, listen for yourself. You won’t believe it. The richness of the middle voice! Fearless, spinning high notes! The perfectly placed ‘declamati!’ The overflowing Italian warmth! The almost animalistic quality of Otello’s character! I don’t know how he got all that in there, but he did. (Albanese certainly had the Italian approach in spades; she could have helped at least with that. But the rest?)
Whatever you do, do not disparage the natural voice that God gave to Lanza, because it was one of the century’s greatest. There was not one teacher, critic, or colleague who disagreed on this point. Rosati, though immensely frustrated by Lanza’s drunkenness, whoring, and distaste for work, admitted that Lanza’s was THE best tenor voice he encounted since Gigli’s […].”
As a side note: The author Ciampa says the following about the Russian tenor Vladimir Atlantov: “Now you want to know a tenor that, had he managed to slip through the Russian beaurocracy, would have put a dent in the incomes of Corelli, Tucker, and several others? His name was Vladimir Atlantov. Never heard of him? Nor has most anybody. The few difficult-to-locate records of this Russian phenomenon confirm that his was one of the greatest tenor instruments of his time, or at any time. Imagine the young Carreras, only with a healthy technique and Mario Lanza’s passion.
Steff
Steff Walzinger
As I was writing my yesterday’s post about the book “The Twilight of Belcanto” I was reminded of another book which also singled out Mario Lanza’s outstanding Otello recording with Licia Albanese for the movie “Serenade.”
The title of this German book is „Grosse Stimmen – Von Enrico Caruso bis Jessy Norman" (Great Voices – From Enrico Caruso to Jessye Norman) by Jens Malte Fischer.
It seems that Mario’s interpretation of Otello is one of those rare recordings that have equally impressed his devotees and his unbelievers/detractors. A true ‘breathtaker’ – Simply unsurpassed!
Here are two excerpts from the book (Translation by Steff Walzinger):
From the chapter “First Intermezzo: The Highlight of Italian Dramatic Singing: Otello, the Role and Its Singer:”
There’s a recording probably from the mid-fifties of the scene “Dio ti giocondi.” One could even lead clever voice experts up the garden path with it because only very few would recognize this impressive, beautifully timbred tenor voice, as being that of Mario Lanza (1921-1959) who was an unfortunate victim of Hollywood and of his own unsteady personality. This recording (with a somewhat more than mature Licia Albanese as Desdemona) belies all those who claim over and over that Lanza’s voice would have been unsuitable for the stage. Opportunities to manipulate [recordings] were relatively small in those days and it cannot be denied that here can be heard an extraordinarily beautiful tenor voice of a virile timbre whose placement and technique were quite steady. Why should this voice not have been able to fill a theatre? Lanza’s voice was not exceedingly big but possessed quite a sufficient middle volume. It would have been necessary to refine the singer’s intelligence and musicality considerably, but, in this regard, even more famous colleagues would have needed some coaching as well.
It might well be that I am all alone with my opinion, but I regard Lanza as an extraordinary vocal talent for which a great opera career would have been possible if it had gotten the chance to mature.
From the chapter “Third Intermezzo: The Peculiar [Singers] and the Outsiders, the Underestimated and the Unknown [Singers]:”
The question is if Lanza was, like many opera lovers in his time thought and many still think nowadays, only one talent among a dozen others and artificially hyped by Hollywood or if he was a truly great talent. I strongly tend to the latter opinion. If one watches the Caruso movie or listens to his not so many opera recordings nowadays, it can be noticed that he was not a particularly cultivated al fresco singer and that his voice did not even have an overly great resemblance to Caruso’s. However, the vocal material, the richness and abundance of this tenor was so great that, in those days as well as today, a truly great opera career would have been indeed possible had he gotten the right instructions.
As an experiment just play one of Lanza’s opera recordings (for example the scene Otello/Desdemona “Dio ti giocondi”) without mentioning his name and compare them with more famous opera voices. You will notice the excitement of all listeners who usually would express strong reservations knowing that it is Lanza, the tragic figure in musical history which on its part would have deserved a realistic-critical film titled “The Talented but Unfortunate Lanza” [RCA]. (Translation by Steff Walzinger).
Steff
Steff Walzinger
Whenever I read the article below which I came across many years ago I am amazed about the myriad of great artists that Mario met.
The event took place 10 days after Mario Lanza’s and Dorothy Kirsten’s St. Rafael concert (27 June 1948) and about two weeks before Mario Lanza’s second appearance at the Hollywood Bowl (24th July 1948, “Symphonies under the Stars”).
Music Group Honors Widow of Composer
A noted assemblage of composers, conductors and well-known musical artists attended the dinner given by Eugene Ormandy and the Hollywood Bowl Association in honor of Mme. Alma Mahler-Werfel, in the Crystal Room of Beverly Hills Hotel last night. Mme. Mahler-Werfel is the widow of the famous Austrian composer and conductor, Gustav Mahler, whose Eighth Symphony, “The Symphony of a Thousand,” will be presented in Hollywood Bowl under Ormandy’s direction on July 29. The work is dedicated to Mme. Mahler-Werfel.
Noted composers attending the dinner were Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, Italo Montemezzi, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, George Antheil, Louis Gruenberg, Ernst Toch, Arthur Bergh, Miklos Rozsa, William Grant Still, Richard Hageman, and Eugene Zador.
Conductors present besides Mr. Ormandy were Bruno Walter, Ivan Boutnikoff, Franz Waxman, Frederick Zweig, Robert Zeller, Leith Stevens and Richard Lert. Other well-known musicians attending were Joseph Szigeti, Dorothy Kirsten, Eula Beal, Mario Lanza, Amparo Iturbi, Olive Mae Beach, Maurice Zam, Andres de Segurola, Susanna Foster and Lester Donahue.
Other guests included Thomas Mann, famous novelist; Fr. Gustave Arlt of UCLA; Ida Koverman, chairman of Mayor Bowron’s advisory committee for music and member of the art commission; C. E. Toberman, president of the Hollywood Bowl Association; George Pike, chairman of the associated board, Hollywood Bowl Association; Ralph Yambert, member of the associate board; J. Arthur Lewis, coordinator, Los Angeles Bureau of Music, and Mrs. Joseph J. Levy, chairman, Hollywood Bowl hospitality committee.(From the Los Angeles Times, 8 July 1948)
Side note: The German novelist Thomas Mann and his family lived at Pacific Pallisades between 1942 – 1952, so, if only for a short time, they were ‘neighbours’ of Mario Lanza’s parents – If I am not mistaken Toni and Maria Cocozza moved to Pacific Pallisades around 1950.
Attached is a photo of that event, showing (from left to right: Bruno Walter, Alma Mahler-Werfel, Eugene Ormandy, Dorothy Kirsten and Igor Strawinsky (photo taken from www.alma-mahler.at)
Steff
Steff Walzinger
This is what José Carreras said this month, June 2016, in an interview for the German newspaper “Welt am Sonntag:”
Den Film, der ihn zum Singen brachte, sieht er sich immer wieder mal an: "Der große Caruso" mit Mario Lanza in der Hauptrolle.
"Der Film ist jetzt 65 Jahre alt, ich habe ihn natürlich auf DVD. Wann immer ich ihn mir anschaue, genieße ich ihn noch genauso wie damals, als ich ihn zum ersten Mal sah."
He [Carreras] watches the film that got him to become a singer again and again: It is ‘The Great Caruso’ with Mario Lanza in the title role:
“The film now is 65 years old, and of course I have it on DVD. Whenever I watch it, I still enjoy it as much as I did at the time I saw it for the very first time.”
Steff
Tony Partington
--
leeann
The New York Times is calling her "America's most unsung singer," the Los Angeles Times once called her "the best known of the ghost singers," and Time Magazine termed her "the ghostest with the mostest." That's because she dubbed the voices of Deborah Kerr in "The King and I," Natalie Wood in "West Side Story" and Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady," and many, many, many more. Appallingly, she was paid little and received few royalties for what have now become perhaps the most recognizable, known versions of these soundtracks and others.
That wasn't the whole of her career, though, and her autobiography, I Could Have Sung All Night (a best seller on Amazon), published in 2006, talks about the rest of it. Her obituary in The NY TImes outlines highlights.
Here she is during a dubbing test singing songs from Sound of Music and here's an interview with the Chicago Tribune in 2008--among many videos with her on YouTube. Thoughtful and lovely.
Derek McGovern
Steff Walzinger
Zsa Zsa Gabor, one of Mario’s great co-stars, passed away yesterday, 18th December 2016, at the (estimated) age of 99. R.I.P.
There’s a terrific photo (see attachment) of Zsa Zsa Gabor (AP, photo by Mario Torrisi) – it belongs to a series of photos that also show her with Mario and the film team - which was taken on 2 October 1958 during a reception at the “Incom” movie studios in Rome to celebrate the beginning of the filming of Mario’s last film “For the First Time.” The photo is featured in the article: “Before Kim Kardashian, Zsa Zsa Gabor was the ultimate socialite:”
In browsing some you-tube videos today I noticed that Zsa Zsa Gabor presented the “Oscar” 1952 in the category “Costume Designs (Black and White):”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ts9I7HF4To&list=PLJ8RjvesnvDPtmlakNWASv3xXgAEBrKD5&index=5
It was the same Academy Award Ceremony in which “The Great Caruso” was nominated in three categories:
Sound Recording: MGM Studio Sound Department, Douglas Shearer, Sound Director
Music (Scoring of a Musical Picture): Peter Herman Adler, Johnny Green
Costume Design (Color): Helen Rose, Gile Steele
As we know “The Great Caruso” eventually won the Academy Award in the category “Best Achievement by Studio Sound Department.” The American actress and dancer Cyd Charisse presented the award to sound director Douglas Shearer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39cMy-Nh1uw&list=PLJ8RjvesnvDPtmlakNWASv3xXgAEBrKD5&index=9
Steff
Steff Walzinger
Derek McGovern
Steff Walzinger
Tony Partington
--
Steff Walzinger
The articles are of special importance as they contain some interesting new information:
They mention three songs that we were not aware Mario had them in his repertoire. These are "Auf Wiedersehn" by Sigmund Romberg, "I Love Life" by Manna-Zucca and "Perfect Day" by Carrie Jacobs Bond (Please note that the latter two were composed by women - remember that Mario's repertoire hardly contains any songs composed by women!). Mario sang these songs (and "One Alone" by Sigmund Romberg) with the chorus, which is special, as he usually only did solo numbers (or rather duets, for example with his "Bel Canto Trio" colleagues) during his concert appearances. Mario's accompanist for the two concerts was, as so often, Josef Blatt, the chorus' accompanist Merrill Lewis and the musical director the chorus founder himself, J. A. Breese.
Incidentally, one of the rewiews, which I am sure Derek McGovern, will soon add to the press section of www.mariolanzatenor.com, mentioned: "One new number was added to Wednesday's program. Following rendition of 'La donna e mobile' from Verdi's 'Rigoletto' in Italian, Mr. Lanza sang the same number in English, singing both to the chorus and to the audience." Do you all remember what Mario did years later at the Royal Albert Hall: "May I sing one half of the aria to the people behind me?" It seems that Mario revived this idea in London.
Of the three "new" songs I mentioned above some nice renditions can be found on you-tube.
Steff
Tony Partington
--
Derek McGovern
Steff Walzinger
Apart
from the concerts I unearthed the other day (Oshkosh, Wisconsin) and which I
posted about yesterday, I came across another "goody."
I am not sure if it was already known that the US-American actor Bradley Cooper (born 1975 in Philadelphia) is a fan of Mario Lanza. In some recent interviews which Cooper gave on the occasion of his directorial debut in the film “A Star is Born” (co-starring Lady Gaga) he mentions that he grew up with Mario’s recordings. As you may notice in the attached excerpts of some interviews with Bradley he mentions that he played Mario Lanza “on the red carpet.” In fact this was on 31 August 2018 and the occasion was the 75th Venice Film Festival (Biennale Cinema 2018).
And here is the proof:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kzk9quQ5f2o
Just start the video at 2:22. One of Mario’s recordings of “E lucevan le stelle” is played while Cooper walks the red carpet. Maybe some of our experts here can even identify the recording?
Steff
Derek McGovern
Palmarola2012
Steff Walzinger
After a friend had pointed out to me recently that he also seemed to have recognized excerpts from the song "Marechiare" by Tosti I re-watched the complete video several times yesterday. And, indeed, after the aria "E lucevan le stelle" from Puccini's "Tosca" (about minute 2:00) Mario's recording of "Marechiare" is played (about minute 4:33).
But there's more to it than that. Tosti's song is followed by "La donna è mobile" from Verdi's "Rigoletto" (about minute 7:40) Besides, right at the beginning of the video, you see the fashion designer Donatella Versace appearing on the red carpet. That's the moment they play Stradella's "Gia il sole dal gange."
It really takes a good hearing combined with headphones to identify any music at all as all the screams of enthusiastic festival fans almost drown out the singing.
As far as I can see all recordings were taken from Mario's Royal Albert Hall recital. Maybe I am wrong but it appears to me that only excerpts of the songs/arias were played, not the complete recordings (maybe due to copyrights?).
Steff