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."
If I Loved you
Mario Lanza Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
All I'd want you to know
If I loved you, words wouldn't come in an easy way
`round in circles I'd go
Longin' to tell you but, afraid and shy,
I'd let my golden chances pass me by
Soon you'd leave me, off you would go in the mist of day
How I love you, if I loved you
Soon you'd leave me, off you would go in the mist of day
Never, never to know
How I love you, if I loved you
The lyrics of Mario Lanza's song "If I Loved You" is a narrative of a person who has fallen in love with someone but is too scared to express their feelings. The lyrics encapsulate the feeling of being nervous when confessing love to someone you care deeply for, where you contemplate your words carefully, trying to find the perfect way to express your emotions, but it doesn't come naturally, and this feeling encapsulates around you in circular motions, leaving you stuck.
The singer in the song is afraid of being rejected, and instead of pushing forward, they let their chances slip away in the fear of losing the one they love. The song's chorus, "Soon you'd leave me, off you would go in the mist of day, Never, never to know How I love you, if I loved you," shows the regret and sorrow of not having expressed one's love and how it has led to a loss.
In brief, the song is about the fear and uncertainty that comes with falling in love, the confusion of not knowing how to express your feelings, and the regret of not speaking up for the one you love.
Line by Line Meaning
I loved you, time and again I would try to say
I have loved you many times before and have tried to express those feelings to you
All I'd want you to know
My only desire is for you to understand my love for you
If I loved you, words wouldn't come in an easy way
I would struggle to find the right words to express the depth of my love for you
`round in circles I'd go
My thoughts would become jumbled and I would find myself going in circles when trying to talk to you about my love
Longin' to tell you but, afraid and shy,
I am filled with desire to confess my love to you, but my fear and shyness prevent me from doing so
I'd let my golden chances pass me by
I have missed opportunities to confess my love for you because of my fear and hesitation
Soon you'd leave me, off you would go in the mist of day
I fear that you will leave and I will not have the chance to tell you how much I love you
Never, never to know
You may never know the depth of my love for you
How I love you, if I loved you
If I had the courage to tell you, you would know how deeply I love you
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Written by: Oscar II Hammerstein, Richard Rodgers
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Joel Gil
If I loved you,
Time and again I would try to say
All I'd want you to know.
If I loved you,
Words wouldn't come in an easy way
Round in circles I'd go!
Longin' to tell you,
But afraid and shy,
I'd let my golden chances pass me by!
Soon you'd leave me,
Off you would go in the mist of day,
Never, never to know how I loved you
If I loved you.
If I loved you,
Time and again I would try to say
All I'd want you to know.
If I loved you,
Words wouldn't come in an easy way
Round in circles I'd go!
Longin' to tell you,
But afraid and shy,
I'd let my golden chances pass me by!
Soon you'd leave me,
Off you would go in the mist of day,
Never, never to know how I loved you
If I loved you.
Martí Amat Vila
ANNA MARTÍ🎉 QUINA VEÚ
QUÉ TENÍA TÁN DOLSA PRUDUGIOSA . ÉL TENOR .
MARÍO LANZA. ÉS UNA LLÁSTIMA QUÉ MURÍS TÁN
❤❤❤ JOVA ❤❤❤ .
ERÁ ÚN GRANDISÍM TENÓR
UNA GRÁN Í BELLÍSIMA ❤
PERSONA. ARÁ DEÚ CANTÁ
PÉRT ❤ DEÚ Í ÉLS ÁNJELS.
QUÉ ÉL DEÚÁN ESCULTÁ.
EMBELASADS.❤🎉❤🎉❤
😊🎉❤🎉😊🎉❤🎉❤
sugarbist
Lanza's voice touched millions of people.I believed it was because of his beauty of voice but also because of the intimacy he was able to achieve with his listeners.He always seems to be singing just for you.His voice was truly a great gift from God.
Scotland The Brave
I'm in Heaven listening to Mario's glorious voice!!! One of my favourite songs sung so beautifully!!! God bless dear Mario forever!!!
Catherine Dolan
I could listen to him forever. The best singing voice in the whole world!He is well missed! Loved himi!
Aloisio Filgueiras Junior
The greatest voice of all times ....Mario put deep felling in his words!
richard gornalle
A truly beautiful song with its great lyrics being sung by this man with his superb voice. As good as it gets.
Patricia Visconte
This man's voice is so so lovely. I grew up listening to Mario and many others. Brings back memories
Bill Brimmer
His deftness with the lyric is amazing. He approached the opening very softly and built it with passion.
Mary Anne David
Such passion & emotion in this most beautiful love song !
atenorforjesus
Truly beautiful. The emotion, just through the roof. Wonderful!
William Dryden
From an era when singers could sing and songs had lyrics with a melody to match the quality of the performer. All long gone.