Operatic career:
Born Alfredo Arnold Cocozza in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was exposed to opera and singing at a young age, and by the age of 16 his vocal talent became apparent. Starting out in local operatic productions in Philadelphia, he later came to the attention of conductor Serge Koussevitzky, who provided young Cocozza with a full student scholarship to the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood in Massachusetts. Koussevitzky would later tell Lanza that, "Yours is a voice such as is heard once in a hundred years."
His operatic debut, as Fenton in Otto Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor, was at Tanglewood on August 7, 1942, after just six weeks of study with conductors Boris Goldovsky and Leonard Bernstein. It was here that Cocozza adopted his stage name from his mother Maria's maiden name of Lanza. His performances at Tanglewood won him critical acclaim, with Noel Straus of The New York Times hailing the 21-year-old tenor as having "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 Special Services in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He appeared on the wartime shows On the Beam and Winged Victory while in the Air Corps.
He resumed his singing career in October 1945 on the CBS radio program Great Moments in Music, where he made six appearances singing various operatic selections. He later studied under Enrico Rosati for fifteen months, then embarked on an 86-concert tour of the United States, Canada and Mexico between July 1947 and May 1948 with George London and Frances Yeend. In April 1948, he sang Pinkerton in the New Orleans Opera's Madama Butterfly. 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 Metro Goldwyn Mayer. This would prove to be a turning point in the young singer's career.
Film career:
MGM's contract with Lanza required him to commit to the studio for six months, and at first Lanza was able to combine his film career with his operatic one, singing two acclaimed performances as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly for the New Orleans Opera Association in April 1948. He also continued to perform in concert, both in solo appearances and as part of the Bel Canto Trio with George London and Frances Yeend. In May 1949, he made his first commercial recordings with RCA Victor. However, his first two films, That Midnight Kiss and The Toast of New Orleans, were very successful, as was his recording career, and Lanza's fame increased dramatically.
In 1951, Lanza portrayed Enrico Caruso in The Great Caruso, which proved to be an astonishing success. At the same time, his popularity exposed Lanza to intense criticism by music critics, including those who had praised his work years earlier.
In 1954, Lanza was dismissed by MGM after he had pre-recorded the songs for The Student Prince. The film was subsequently made with actor Edmund Purdom miming to Lanza's vocals. During this period Lanza came very close to bankruptcy as a result of poor investment decisions made by his former manager. Owing about $250,000 in back taxes to the IRS, Lanza withdrew from the public eye for a time.
Mario Lanza at home.He returned to an active film career in 1956 in Serenade; despite its strong musical content, it was not as successful as his previous films. Lanza then moved to Rome, Italy in May 1957, where he worked on the film Seven Hills of Rome and returned to live performing in a series of acclaimed concerts throughout Britain, Ireland and the European Continent. In early 1958, he auditioned for the management of La Scala in Milan, and was immediately offered a minimum two-year contract to sing at that theatre. The opera initially discussed was Puccini's Tosca. Later that year, Lanza also agreed to open the 1960/61 season at the Rome Opera as Canio in Pagliacci. At the same time, however, his health began to decline, with the tenor suffering from a variety of ailments, including phlebitis and acute high blood pressure. The following year, in April 1959, Lanza suffered a minor heart attack, followed by double pneumonia in August. He died in Rome in October of that year at the age of 38 from a pulmonary embolism. His widow moved back to Hollywood with their four children and died of a drug overdose five months later; the younger of their two sons died of a heart attack at the age of 37. When Lanza died rumors spread that the notorious mob boss Lucky Luciano (Salvatore Luciano) had had him killed after he refused to perform for him but those rumors quickly died down because they simply were not true. 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, and motion pictures. He was the first artist for RCA Victor Red Seal to receive a gold disc. He was also the first artist to sell two and half million albums. A highly influential artist, Lanza has been credited with inspiring the careers of successive generations of opera singers, including Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Leo Nucci and Jose Carreras, as well as those of singers with seemingly different backgrounds, and influences, his RCA Victor label-mate Elvis Presley being the most notable example. In 1994, tenor José Carreras paid tribute to Lanza in a worldwide concert tour, saying of him, "If I'm an opera singer, it's thanks to Mario Lanza."
Be My Love (From
Mario Lanza Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
This need that you and you alone create
Just fill my arms the way you've filled my dreams
The dreams that you inspire with every sweet desire
Be my love and with your kisses set me burning
One kiss is all that I need to seal my fate
And hand-in-hand, we'll find love's promised land
If you will be my love
Be my love, for no one else can end this yearning
This need that you and you alone create
Just fill my arms the way you've filled my dreams
The dreams that you inspire with every sweet desire
(Be my love and with your kisses) set me burning
One kiss is all that I need to seal my fate
And hand-in-hand, we'll find love's promised land
There'll be no one but you for me, eternally
If you will be my love (if you will only be my love)
The song "Be My Love" by Mario Lanza is a romantic ballad that speaks to the intensity of love and the all-consuming desire for one's beloved. The lyrics were written by legendary songwriter Sammy Cahn, with music by Nicholas Brodszky. The song was originally recorded for the film "The Toast of New Orleans" in 1950.
The song speaks of a yearning that only one person can fulfill, with the singer asking their love interest to be theirs and theirs alone. The lyrics are deeply passionate and evoke a sense of desperation and urgency, as if the singer cannot go on without the love of their life. The chorus is particularly poignant, with the repetition of "Be my love" conveying a deep longing for this person to reciprocate their love.
The song is beautifully sung by Mario Lanza, with his powerful tenor voice perfectly suited to the emotional content of the lyrics. He delivers the song with intensity and passion, making the listener feel the depth of his emotions. The orchestration is also noteworthy, with sweeping strings and soaring horns adding to the romantic and dramatic feel of the song.
Overall, "Be My Love" is a timeless classic that speaks to the universal theme of love and the intensity and passion that can come with it. It is a beautiful ode to the power of love and the all-consuming desire for one's beloved.
Line by Line Meaning
Be my love
I am begging you to be the one I love and care for.
For no one else can end this yearning
I long for you so much that no one else can make this feeling go away.
This need that you and you alone create
You are the only one who can create this desire in me.
Just fill my arms
I want you to hold me close and not let go.
The way you've filled my dreams
You have appeared in my dreams and made me yearn for you even more.
The dreams that you inspire
You are the reason why my dreams are so vivid and full of passion.
With every sweet desire
You fuel my desires with your every move and every touch.
And with your kisses set me burning
Your kisses have the power to ignite a fire in me.
One kiss is all I need to seal my fate
Just one kiss from you is enough to make me yours forever.
And hand in hand
We will walk together side by side,
We'll find love's promised land
And discover a place where our love will thrive.
There'll be no one but you for me
You are the only one I want and need in my life.
Eternally
Our love will last forever if you agree to be mine.
If you will be my love
All I ask of you is to be the one who will share my life and my love.
Lyrics © Kanjian Music
Written by: Nikolaus Brodszky, Sammy Cahn
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@MyYT62
John 3:16….
16 “For God loved+ the world* so much that he gave his only-begotten Son,+ in order that everyone exercising faith+ in him might not be destroyed+ but have everlasting life.+
Acts 17:31
+ 31 Because he has set a day in which he purposes to judge+ the inhabited earth* in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and he has furnished a guarantee* to all men in that he has resurrected+ him from the dead.”
John 5:25-29…
25 “Most truly I say to YOU, The hour is coming, and it is now, when the dead+ will hear the voice+ of the Son of God and those who have given heed will live. 26 For just as the Father has life in himself,*+ so he has granted also to the Son to have life in himself.+ 27 And he has given him authority to do judging,+ because Son of man+ he is. 28 Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs+ will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life,+ those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.
🙏🏻
@Doopye
Be my love, for no one else can end this yearning
This need that you and you alone create
Just fill my arms the way you've filled my dreams
The dreams that you inspire with ev'ry sweet desire
Be my love, and with your kisses set me burning
One kiss is all I need to seal my fate
And hand in hand, we'll find love's promised land
There'll be no one but you, for me eternally
If you will be my love
Be my love, for no one else can end this yearning
This need that you and you alone create
Just fill my arms the way you've filled my dreams
The dreams that you inspire with ev'ry sweet desire
Be my love, and with your kisses set me burning
One kiss is all I need to seal my fate
And hand in hand, we'll find love's promised land
There'll be no one but you, for me eternally
@Lolo-un9ff
I was raised listening to him, dad would play this and try and give mum a cuddle, I sang it to him at his bedside as he was dying and we played it at mums funeral 7 years later😢 just so much passion and sensitivity ❤
@lornabarrett5388
Me too 😢
@Lolo-un9ff
❤@@lornabarrett5388
@user-qh1ro4dr5n
I had this played at my husband's funeral he loved Mario Lanza.
@jamie1093
i’m 38 and i ADORE hearing mario lanza sing❤ i grew up hearing him sing as my grandma was a huge fan, even my kids recognise mario lanzas voice when they hear it and they’re aged 15, 14, 13, 10, 8 and 6. mario may be gone but his music and the power of his voice is immortal! thank you for giving my memories an amazing soundtrack!! still listening in 2022!!
@kamlinghung5045
Listening in Dec 2023. This song brought me to tears 😢
@wrongfullyaccused7139
Never equaled, never surpassed. Greatest tenor that ever lived.
@jubalcalif9100
He was no Percy Helton, but the late great Mr Lanza did indeed have one powerful voice !
@andyb.1643
I won my wife's heart by serenading her with this song. I still don't know if it was her sense of humor or sense of romance. I still let it rip once in a while, and she still loves me!
@alistairmacleod8513
My dad chose this for my mum's funeral. It's beautiful