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."
Song Of Songs
Mario Lanza Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Do you remember, Love, the words we spoke
Have you forgotten all the tender vows we made
In the silent magical moonbeams' light
Gone are the golden dreams with summer roses
And all our tenderest vows were made, but to be broken
Song of songs, song of memory
Nevermore for me can that melody
Fill the heart with the joy once we knew
Oh night of bliss, night of June and love
Beneath the stars, amid the roses
Oh, dream of delight that faded at dawn
Oh, song of songs, oh, night of bliss
When you were my whole world of love
When you were my whole world of love, of love
The lyrics to Mario Lanza's Song of Songs reflect on the memory of a past love. The singer reminisces about the night they first met, the words they spoke, and the tender vows they made under the moonlight. However, these memories are now tinged with sadness as those golden dreams and tender vows were made only to be broken. The singer is left with a broken melody of love and life, unable to fill their heart with the joy that was once known.
The song as a whole explores the idea of lost love and how the memories of past relationships can linger long after they are over. The reminiscing leads to a bittersweet nostalgia for the listener as they relate to the emotions conveyed in the lyrics. The Song of Songs becomes a symbol for the beautiful yet fleeting nature of love.
In a way, the song is about the power of memory and how we record the most significant moments in our lives to relive them again and again. The singer's longing for a lost love is relatable, and it's this universality of the theme that has kept the song relevant even after so many years.
Line by Line Meaning
Do you recall that night in June when first we met
Do you remember the night we met in June?
Do you remember, Love, the words we spoke
Do you remember what we said to each other?
Have you forgotten all the tender vows we made
Have you forgotten the promises we made?
In the silent magical moonbeams' light
Under the quiet and magical moonlight
Gone are the golden dreams with summer roses
The beautiful dreams we had with summer roses have vanished
And all our tenderest vows were made, but to be broken
And all of our sweetest promises were made just to be broken
Song of songs, song of memory
This is a song about memories
And broken melody of love and life
But the melody of love and life is now broken
Nevermore for me can that melody
I can never again hear that melody
Fill the heart with the joy once we knew
And feel that joy in my heart as we once did
Oh night of bliss, night of June and love
Oh, what a blissful night it was in June when we fell in love
Beneath the stars, amid the roses
Under the stars, surrounded by roses
Oh, dream of delight that faded at dawn
The delightful dream that faded when the sun rose
Oh, song of songs, oh, night of bliss
This song is about the night we were filled with bliss
When you were my whole world of love
A time when you were my everything in love
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: MOYA, CLARENCE LUCAS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@kimfritz5022
Every time I listen to Mario Lanza I cry. What a magnificent voice. No one matches his voice neither in the past or😊 the present 💝
@InACountryGarden
Superb. Thanks for uploading this video. 🙂
WHAT a voice Lanza had; and I am so glad to say STILL has for us to listen to due to all the recordings & films of him that we can still play today.
@jillpendlebury8667
For my lovely Dad passed in June 2016, Mario Lanza greatest tenor of all time. Daughter Jill xx
@jacquiebarbani2057
No one greater. Just breaks my heart he left us so soon. There were so many other songs he could have shared w/us. Rest on God's lap Mario & I know he will enjoy all your songs from your beautiful voice.
@user-ct1ez8ll5u
Боже, как же это красиво!!! Марио - гений в музыке!
@gigiinsulana4814
MARIO: Beautiful song, magic voice. SUPERB!
@Granny983
When I was in 8th grade..I had an autograph book..and in the line that you wrote "My Hero"..I wrote Mario Lanza..and "Favorite music"..I wrote..Be My Love.
@Annamaria-iq1wy
credo di avere quasi tutti i CD di mario,anche quelli in vinile e la raccolta delle registrazioni del suo show alla radio per la coca cola perché tanti anni fa, da quando ho visto il suo primo film arrivato in Italia, il grande Caruso, non ho più trovato nessuno con una voce tanto bella!
@user-yr1hm9ko2q
... достаточно взглянуть на почерк: человек Больших возможностей, ему нравилось нравиться, и при этом человек застенчивого характкра, склонный всегда и во всём отстаивать справедливость👏👏👏♥️♥️♥️
@user-yr1hm9ko2q
... ♥️♥️♥️🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️