Classical Crossover

[Lover of Grand Voices]

Derek

I appreciate your comments and those of Armando's concerning
Mr.Mannering's statements about Lanza. It appears to me that experts
on Mario Lanza like Mr. Mannering are constantly highlighting that
quality of his that made him unique and so successful as a singer but
often running off on tangents about details. Please forgive me for
noting this.

It is the "classical crossover" that he was able to accomplish, which,
in my very humble view (I am not in the league of Lanza experts like
you, Armando or Mr. Mannering) was his real strength and made him
truly great. Perhaps a trend is developing where the public is
appreciating more and more these classical crossover artists.

I just ran by a blog that deals with this subject and it made this
statement:

"The most popular vocal classical crossover artist is Mario Lanza, the
American tenor and movie star who was popular in the 1950s, whose
amazing voice caught the attention of even those who were not die-hard
classical music fans. Lanza was signed as an artist to RCA Victor on
its premium label – Red Seal. One of his most amazing musical feats
was his recording of Be My Love, from The Toast of New Orleans, his
second film, which hit Number One on the Billboard pop singles chart
in February 1951 and sold more than 2-million copies. To-date, no
classical label artist, including The Three Tenors, has been able to
match this achievement."

I will not comment on the accuracy of the final two sentences. If
anyone wants to read the entire blog it is:
http://genevacatlin.getablog.net/2010/06/18/classical-crossover-music-history-and-growing-popularity/

My point in bringing up this discussion thread is that we should dwell
more on this subject so that we can truly put Mario Lanza in the
catagory that he belongs in as the greatest of classical crossover
artists. Here is where we can pin point evidence and talk about his
abilities and build case after case to show that he supremely
succeeded in a genre of singing that many still work to match.

[Derek McGovern]

Ciao Emilio: Mario's crossover success was certainly amazing, though I
think the commercial aspect of it needs to be placed in context. When
he reached the top of the popular charts with Be My Love, he did so at
a time when, as conductor Christopher Palmer puts it, "the respective
styles of popular and classical music had not separated off the way
they have today." In other words, I think it would be much more
difficult for Lanza, were he a young operatic singer emerging on the
music scene today, to dominate the popular charts to the extent that
he did in the 1950s. For one thing, the radio stations today wouldn't
play his singles!

I think he'd dominate the *classical* (album) charts, though.

In terms of attitudes toward crossover artists, Mario wouldn't have
faced the same degree of snobbery today that he did in the 1950s. As
someone (whose name escapes me right now) argued in the 2005 Opera
News article on Lanza, a singer like Mario would receive a warm
welcome from the musical 'establishment' were he around today. But in
the 1950s, the fact that he sang the popular music of the day -- and
did it so effortlessly -- made him a 'marked man' as far as many
critics (professional and amateur alike) were concerned. Essentially
in their eyes, he'd committed the sin of not being "serious."

To be honest with you, I'm not keen at all on the term "crossover,"
which today is used so often and carelessly that it's become almost
meaningless. Josh Groban, for example, is usually referred to as a
crossover artist -- but exactly what is it that he's crossing over
from? Certainly not opera!

I'd much rather describe Lanza as the most versatile operatic tenor
that I've ever heard.

> anyone wants to read the entire blog it is:http://genevacatlin.getablog.net/2010/06/18/classical-crossover-music...

[Joseph Fagan]

I could not agree with you more , Derek , on the loose way people use the term "crossover" artist.  What exactly are Groban and other pop singers crossing over from??. IF that term has to be used, it should always be preceded with the adjective "classical"... ( this should eliminate all the "microphone" singers).    I really can not name one really good *classical* crossover artist other than Mario  ( perhaps Jan Peerce).   Lanza's incredible ability to sing popular music with the same magic characteristics of his  operatic voice served him well since it quickly introduced him to the world and enticed  many of his new fans to enjoy Neapolitan and opera as well. I know this was Mario's gift to me.

[zsazsa]

Dear Derek and Joseph,

how wonderfully you both have put into words the essence of Mario`s
greateness. Yes, derek I agree with you so much, that instead of
crossover, the most versatile operatic tenor that have ever lived.
This is really wonderful having these fundamental analisys of you
both, put into words, what makes Mario`s unique artistic achievement
so unique so peerless in the music history.
Thank you both for your great posts and have a great day.
Cheers from Susan

[leeann]

Emilio, thank you for this great idea for a thread. The term
crossover seems to be all over the place now, and it's nice to pin it
down--especially since the BBC4 program and the Opera News article are
discussing the "crossover" component of Lanza's career. How to define
Mario Lanza seems to be a dilemma. :-)

I was thinking about this when I ran across a recent article on
soprano Renee Fleming who has sung and recorded across a number of
musical genres, and she's quite clear about NOT liking the term
crossover singer. She says that crossover usually means performing
popular music in a classically trained style, and historically, I
think that may be where earlier opera stars have failed in trying to
make a transition to popular music; you just can't ever forget they
are, first and foremost, opera singers. The thing is, when Lanza sang
music that would've been classified as popular in the 1940s and early
50s, my response isn't "Here's an operatic tenor singing a non-
operatic song." I'm caught up by one of the most beautiful voices ever
bringing a unique musical and interpretive sense to something--and
its amazing that his work could appear on both the classical and pop
charts at the same time.

Fleming immerses herself totally in the style of the music she's
performing whether it's swing or rock or whatever. At least, she says
that's her intention. Perhaps she represents another evolution in the
diversification of classical singers. Here's her explanation in a
fairly recent article in the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/arts/music/30crossovers.html?ref=arts

I love Derek's and Joe Fagan's pointing out that to be a crossover,
you have to come FROM someplace, and also going back to recently
listening to baritone Lawrence Tibbett in the 1935 film,
Metropolitan.

I was wondering if his version of the musical adaptation of Kipling's
Road to Mandalay (here it is on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSzXoVWjEbo)
and of the spiritual Glory Road would be considered among early
crossovers. I have to admit--his rendition of Glory Road is so far
removed from its roots as an African-American spiritual, I don't quite
know what to call it. Thanks for these interesting ideas. Best, Lee
Ann

[Lover of Grand Voices]

Dear Leeann. Thank you so much for refining this further. I will look
at the examples you note.
As an advocate for Lanza, I try to intorduce him to people who have no
clue about him. I am often amazed at when they hear him sing an
opearatic piece at how amazed they are at the quality and beauty of
the voice. I am also suprised when they hear him sing a popular song
and scratch their heads and say "How could this be the same singer?"
This was part of Lanza's remarkable talent.

[Derek McGovern]

I'm just moving Joe's latest post to this thread, as I think it fits
in with this topic quite well:

"What if Mario had been born in 1985??...What kind of future would he
have? The day of B'way and good ballads, romantic music was really
over by the 1960's...so Hollywood may not have become a factor in his
journey to the opera stage..BUT, on the other hand he might not have
had the world recognition from his early hits. e.g. BML, Loveliest
Night Of the Year, etc

"However, on the other side of the coin is the fact that REAL
lightweights like Paul Potts get a lot of attention today....just
imagine the reaction to Mario recorded in the technology of today!

"There is no answer to the above, I just thought it might be fun to
speculate. I DO KNOW THIS. His voice was so beautiful that it truly is
a human diamond that will last forever. Mike McAdam's and Armando's
CDs should be included in any space capsule we send out to deep
space!"

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Joe: If Lanza had been born in the 1980s, then a Hollywood career
would definitely not have happened. In fact, as I think I've mentioned
on another thread somewhere, if he'd been born even a decade later
(making him Fritz Wunderlich's contemporary), he would arrived on the
scene too late for the kind of film musicals that made him famous.

Incidentally, James Kilbourne in his 2004 essay "What Could and Should
Have Been" offers a tantalizing (if highly fanciful!) alternative
"what if", as he imagines the kind of film and operatic career Mario
might have had if he'd made The Student Prince. Check it out:

http://solohq.solopassion.com/Articles/Kilbourne/What_Could_and_Should_Have_Been.shtml

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Lee Ann: You make a lot of excellent points here. It's funny,
though: while, like you, I've always felt that Lanza could sound
authentic in virtually anything that he sang (barring bizarre Calypso-
hybrid numbers like Pineapple Pickers!), quite a few of my friends who
admire his operatic and Neapolitan recordings hear "an opera singer
wasting his talent" when I play them something like Begin the
Beguine.

Thanks for that link to the clip of Lawrence Tibbett. Yes, early
crossover!! Watching it I could certainly appreciate why Tibbett
admired Lanza so tremendously: that same complete lack of affectation,
the vitality of his singing (and even his acting), and of course that
unmistakably great voice.

Tibbett was certainly a fascinating character too, and it's so sad
that his (vocal) glory days were relatively few. Here's an interesting
1960 article on him from Time:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,826507,00.html/

On Jun 22, 3:56 am, leeann <leeanngha...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Emilio, thank you for this great idea for a thread.  The term
> crossover seems to be all over the place now, and it's nice to pin it
> down--especially since the BBC4 program and the Opera News article are
> discussing the "crossover" component of Lanza's career. How to define
> Mario Lanza seems to be a dilemma. :-)
>
> I was thinking about this when I ran across a recent article on
> soprano Renee Fleming  who has sung and recorded across a number of
> musical genres, and she's quite clear about NOT liking the term
> crossover singer. She says that crossover usually means performing
> popular music in a classically trained style, and historically, I
> think that may be where earlier opera stars have failed in trying to
> make a transition to popular music; you just can't ever forget they
> are, first and foremost, opera singers. The thing is, when Lanza sang
> music that would've been classified as popular in the 1940s and early
> 50s, my response isn't "Here's an operatic tenor singing a non-
> operatic song." I'm caught up by one of the most beautiful voices ever
> bringing a unique  musical and interpretive sense to something--and
> its amazing that his work could appear on both the classical and pop
> charts at the same time.
>
> Fleming immerses herself totally in the style of the music she's
> performing whether it's swing or rock or whatever. At least, she says
> that's her intention. Perhaps she represents another evolution in the
> diversification of classical singers. Here's her explanation in a

> fairly recent article in the New York Times.http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/arts/music/30crossovers.html?ref=arts

[Lover of Grand Voices]

Dear Derek, thank you so much for the Kilbourne essay. It is
beautiful and should be added to the marvelous collection you have
assembled in this site. Please add it, if you can. I often think of
what could have been if Mario would have had a forty year career like
others. Yet within the span of a decade he did so much. I still pray
that some hidden recordings that are stached away could come to
light. I believe you mentioned that there may be some in the MGM
archives that were recorded but never published. Perhaps some day we
may find more gems that will magnify our appreciation of his talent.

> http://solohq.solopassion.com/Articles/Kilbourne/What_Could_and_Shoul...

[leeann]

Dear Derek, thank you for the link to the Time article about Lawrence
Tibbett. Given what that article explains about him--including that
he argued that the music of Jerome Kern was as good as many an
imported classic or that he was one of the first American opera
singers to make a movie, plus the scope of his repertoire--it makes
perfect sense that he would not only recognize, but speak clearly
about Lanza. What an interesting person.

Part of what Armando writes about Tibbett quotes a comment from
Tibbett's radio program , "Lanza, in spite of the longhair criticism
panning him as a 'movie singer' is the greatest musical talent in
America in our century. A man who is bringing great music to the kids,
the farms, the ghettos and the palaces." (p. 134)

It would appear there were a lot of parallels in their career, and the
film Metropolitan--like Lanza's later films--was a movie made to
showcase Tibbett. The plot was definitely secondary!

I'd love to see other early tenor movies--Gigli in Non ti scordar, for
example (1935)!

Here's another Time magazine link about Tibbett--from 1933. Best, Lee
Ann

[leeann]

Dear Gill, Thanks for the warning :-).

I'm a fan of dated movies, I have to admit, but with this one, then,
I'll look forward to the music and sit with the fast forward button at
the ready! Best, Lee Ann

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Lee Ann & Gill: I've also seen Gigli's Non Ti Scordar di Me, and I
certainly agree with Armando's comment in his book that dear old
Beniamino was not a convincing on-screen lover! There's an
unintentionally hilarious moment when a gilted Gigli rushes out of a
concert while performing the title song (which I think he sings no
fewer than three times in this short feature). Mind you, the acting
ability of the rest of the cast left a lot to be desired as well!