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."
Questa O Quella
Mario Lanza Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
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Questa o quella, per me pari sono
A quant'altre d'intorno, d'intorno mi vedo
Del mio core, l'impero non cedo
Meglio ad una, che ad altre belt
Di que il fato ne infiora, la vita
S'oggi questa, mi torna gradita
Forse un altra, forse un altra, doman lo sar
Un altra, forse un altra, doman lo sar
La costanza tiranna del core
Detestiamo, qual morbo, qual morbo crudele
Sol chi vuole, si serbi fedele
Non v'ha amor no no, se non v' libert
De' i mariti geloso il furore
Degli amanti le smanie, derido
Anco d'Argo i cent'occhi disfido
Se mi punge, se mi punge, una qualche belt
Se mi punge, una qualche belt
The lyrics of Mario Lanza's "Questa O Quella" present a complex view of love and desire. The singer is torn between a desire for constancy - the "tyranny" of the heart - and a more fickle attraction to the various beautiful women he encounters. He believes that the beauty of these women is a gift from fate, but he ultimately sees the pursuit of beauty as a kind of cruel disease. He acknowledges that he may be drawn to a particular woman today but could just as easily be attracted to someone else tomorrow. Despite this, he seems to find some pleasure in the uncertainty of desire and the thrill of chasing fleeting infatuations.
Line by Line Meaning
Questa o quella, per me pari sono
To me, these two women are equal and interchangeable
A quant'altre d'intorno, d'intorno mi vedo
Compared to the many other women around me, they are equally lovely
Del mio core, l'impero non cedo
I don't give up control of my heart to anyone
Meglio ad una, che ad altre belt
It's better to have one woman's beauty than that of many
La costoro avvenenza qual dono
Their beauty is like a gift
Di que il fato ne infiora, la vita
Their beauty is what makes life worth living
S'oggi questa, mi torna gradita
If today it is this woman, she pleases me
Forse un altra, forse un altra, doman lo sar
Perhaps tomorrow it will be another woman
La costanza tiranna del core
The tyranny of the heart's constancy
Detestiamo, qual morbo, qual morbo crudele
We hate it like a cruel disease
Sol chi vuole, si serbi fedele
Only if you want to be faithful, be so
Non v'ha amor no no, se non v' libert
There is no love without freedom
De' i mariti geloso il furore
The fury of jealous husbands
Degli amanti le smanie, derido
I laugh at the antics of lovers
Anco d'Argo i cent'occhi disfido
I could defy even the hundred eyes of Argus
Se mi punge, se mi punge, una qualche belt
If any beauty should sting me
Se mi punge, una qualche belt
If any beauty should sting me
Writer(s): Giuseppe Verdi, Library Arrangement
Contributed by Austin C. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
June E. Dahl
on April in Paris
This is a truly wonderful version of the "Our Father". Mario Lanza has a reverential interpretation of this melody and sings it with heartfelt intensity. I will be 80 years old next February (God willing) and I always associate Mario Lanza with my Faith because I saw: "The Great Caruso" with my Mother and sister , in 1951. I was 9 years- old at the time and had begun to sing in the church choir as a child, myself. The choir- boy, start of Enrico Caruso ´s singing career impressed me very much ! And, so, I associate Mario Lanza with the Catholic Church. The part of Enrico Caruso played by Mario Lanza, really made this Warner Bros. Hollywood film classic what it is. I appreciated that his voice nearly sobbed and grieved on the arias when required and was very moving and expressive ! His marvellous tenor voice was an unforgettable experience which has remained with me, all my life ! Mario Lanza has given me through his interpretations of arias and ballads, my first musical glimpse as a child into the human heart ! His particular timbre and sound coupled with the fine well- modulated nuances and dynamic range, are outstanding. He sings with passion, vitality and great joy !
Alex Berlin Germany
on Vogliatemi Bene
Instead of all that, now you'll have here something not alike: Tutti Frutti, Gonna tell Aunt Mary 'bout Uncle John
He claims he has the misery
But he havin' a lot of fun
Oh, baby, yes, baby
Whoo, baby, havin' me some fun tonight, yeah
Well, long tall Sally, she's built for speed
She got everything that Uncle John need