Mario Lanza (31 January 1921 – 7 October 1959) was an Italian-American operatic tenor and Hollywood movie star who enjoyed profits in the 1950s. His voice was considered by several to rival that of Enrico Caruso, whom Lanza portrayed in the 1951 film The Great Caruso. Lanza was take a breath to sing a lot types of music. When his extremely emotional style was non always praised by critics, he was vastly popular & his several recordings come however prized in todays world.

Operatic career
Born Alfredo Arnold Cocozza inside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was exposed to operthe & singing at a immature age, & per age of Sixteen his vocal talent became apparent. Starting call at local operatic productions inside Philadelphia, he late come to the attention of conductor Serge Koussevitzky, who provided immature Cocozzthe using a fully student scholarship to the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood in Massachusetts. Koussevitzky would late tell Lanza that, "Yours is a voice such as is heard once in a hundred years."

His operatic debut, when Fenton within Otto Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor, was at Tanglewood on August 7, 1942, after only sextet weeks of learn by using conductors Boris Goldovsky & Leonard Bernstein. It was on this text that Cocozza adopted his stage title, a masculine form of his mother's maiden title (Maria Lanza). His performances at Tanglewood won him critical plaudit, by owning Noel Straus of The New York Times hailing the 21-season-old tenor when with "few equals among tenors of the day in terms of quality, warmth, and power."

His operatic career was interrupted by World War II, when he was assigned to Favorite Services in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He appeared on the wartime shows On the Beam & Winged Victory spell in the Air Corps.

He resumed his cantabile career within October 1945 on the CBS radio program Great Moments within Music, in which he manufactured half a dozen appearances singing various operatic selections. He late exposed under Enrico Rosati for xv months, so start up an 86-concert tour of the United States, Canada and Mexico between July 1947 and Can 1948 by using George London and Frances Yeend. a concert at the Hollywood Bowl brought Lanza to the attention of MGM's Louis B. Mayer, who signed Lanza to a seven-year film contract with MGM. This would prove to exist as the turning point in the immature singer's career.

Film career
MGM's locate Lanza called upon him to commit to the studio for vi months, & ab initio Lanza wwhen suspire to combine his film career using his operatic 1, singing deuce acclaimed performances as Pinkerton inside Madama Butterfly for the New Orleans Opera Association within April 1948. He likewise continued to perform together, two within solo appearances & when section of the Bel Canto Trio with George London and Frances Yeend. Within Will 1949, he mass produced his 1st commercial recordings by owning RCA Victor. Notwithstanding, his foremost 2 films, That Midnight Kiss and The Toast of New Orleans, were very successful, when was his recording career, & Lanza's fame increased dramatically.

Inside 1951, Lanza portrayed Enrico Caruso in The Great Caruso, which proved to exist as an astonishing profits. At a equivalent instance, his popularity studied Lanza to unbearable criticism by music critics, including people that experienced praised his act years earliest.

Around 1952, Lanza was dismissed by MGM when he got pre-recorded a songs for The Student Prince. A film was afterward manufactured by having actor Edmund Purdom miming to Lanza's vocals. In the time of this period Lanza come super approximately bankruptcy following of unfortunate investment decisions processed by his previous manager. Owing just about $250,000 inside back taxation to the IRS, Lanza withdrew from the public eye for a time.

He returned to an active film career around 1956 inside Serenade; despite its strong musical content, it wwhen non when successful as his former films. Lanza so moved to Rome, Italy in May 1957, in which he worked on the film Seven Hills of Rome and returned to live performing around the series of acclaimed concerts throughout Britain, Ireland and the European Continent. At the equivalent period, notwithstanding, his health began to decline, by having a tenor suffering from either a kind of complaint, including phlebitis and acute high blood pressure. the resulting season, within April 1959, Lanza suffered a minor heart attack, followed by double pneumonia in August. He died withwithin Rome in October of that season at the age of 38 from either a pulmonary embolism. Soprano Maria Callas would later say of him, "My biggest regret is not to have had the opportunity to sing with the greatest tenor voice I've ever heard."

Lanza's short career covered opera, radio, concerts, recordings, & motion pictures. He was the number 1 creative person for Victor Red Seal to receive a gold disc. He was as well a number one creative person to sell ii and half million albums. a extremely influential creative person, Lanza has been credited by having inspiring the careers of serial generations of opera singers, including Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Leo Nucci and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Inside 1994, tenor José Carreras paid tribute to Lanzthe in a worldwide concert tour, locution of him, "If I'm an opera singer, it's thanks to Mario Lanza."

Filmography
That Midnight Kiss, 1949 The Toast of New Orleans, 1950 The Great Caruso, 1951 ''Because You're Mine, 1952 The Student Prince, 1954 - voice only Serenade, 1956 Seven Hills of Rome, 1958 For the First Time, 1959

Recommended Recordings
Mario! Lanza At His Best BMG 1995 Mario Lanza Live at Hollywood Bowl: Historical Recordings (1947 & 1951) Gala 2000 Mario Lanza Sings Songs from The Student Prince and The Desert Song BMG 1989 Serenade/A Cavalcade of Show Tunes BMG 2004 Mario Lanza: Opera Arias and Duets BMG 1999 Mario Lanza: Christmas Hymns and Carols/You Do Something To Me Collectables 2004 Heavenly Creatures- voice only

Recommended DVDs

Mario Lanza: The American Caruso [Kultur Video] [1999] - A 1983 docudrama hosted by Placido Domingo.