Mario Lanza (31 January 1921 – 7 October 1959) was an American operatic ten… Read Full Bio ↴Mario Lanza (31 January 1921 – 7 October 1959) was an American operatic tenor and Hollywood movie star who enjoyed success in the 1950s. His voice was considered by many to rival that of Enrico Caruso, whom Lanza portrayed in the 1951 film The Great Caruso. Lanza was able to sing all types of music. While his highly emotional style was not universally praised by critics, he was immensely popular and his many recordings are still prized today.

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."

Your Eyes Have Told Me So
Mario Lanza Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I saw your eyes, your wonderful eyes
With love light and tenderness feeling
They thrilled me through, they filled me too
With wonderful dreams I am dreaming
No need to speak, no more shall I seek
For my heart has taught me their meaning
And love has come, at last I know
Your eyes have told me so

No need to speak, no more shall I seek
For my heart has taught me their meaning

And love has come, at last I know
Your eyes have told me so

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Mario Lanza's song Your Eyes Have Told Me So depict the overwhelming feeling of falling in love with someone just through a mere gaze into their eyes. The opening lines "I saw your eyes, your wonderful eyes, with love light and tenderness feeling" suggest that the singer is captivated by the gaze of the person they are singing to. The line "They thrilled me through, they filled me too with wonderful dreams I am dreaming" further emphasizes the powerful impact of their gaze. The singer implies that the person's eyes have the magical power to make them dream of wonderful things.

The following lines "No need to speak, no more shall I seek for my heart has taught me their meaning" suggest that the singer has understood the meaning behind the person's gaze, and they do not need any more explanation or words. Finally, the singer realizes that they have fallen in love, conveyed through the line "And love has come, at last, I know, your eyes have told me so."

Overall, the lyrics to this song are an ode to the power of love at first sight and how the gaze of the person you love can communicate more than words ever could.

Line by Line Meaning

I saw your eyes, your wonderful eyes
I caught a glimpse of your eyes and they were astonishingly beautiful.

With love light and tenderness feeling
Your eyes were filled with a glimmer of love and kindness.

They thrilled me through, they filled me too
I was filled with joy and happiness from just looking into your eyes.

With wonderful dreams I am dreaming
Just by looking into your eyes, I am inspired to dream of a better future.

No need to speak, no more shall I seek
I don't need words or further proof to understand what your eyes are telling me.

For my heart has taught me their meaning
My intuition tells me that your eyes are revealing your true feelings and emotions.

And love has come, at last I know
I finally comprehend that the emotions your eyes show me are love.

Your eyes have told me so
Your eyes have conveyed all these emotions to me – love, kindness, happiness and hope – without you even having to speak.

Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: EGBERT VAN ALSTYNE, GUS KAHN, WALTER BLAUFUSS

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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