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Unfathomably, for an artist whose film The Great Caruso inspired the careers of many leading opera singers, and whose RCA album of the name was the first operatic LP to sell a million copies, CD compilations of tenor Mario Lanza have long emphasized the lighter part of his recorded legacy. Indeed, as I argue here, the casual buyer/listener would be hard pressed to know that there was more to Lanza than the Great American Songbook and "Be My Love." And yet the tenor made some extraordinary operatic recordings, many of which are known only to his aficionados. Simply put, there has never been a single consistently outstanding CD compilation of Lanza's operatic recordings.
Until now, that is.
I'm delighted to announce that UK-based Sepia Records will be releasing the CD Mario Lanza: Greatest Operatic Recordings on February 9, 2015. This is a Lanza compilation that (for once!) lives up to its title. While it may not contain all of Lanza's greatest operatic performances---no single disc could---my good friend Vincent Di Placido is right on the money when he describes its contents as "all killer, no filler." (Vince, by the way, played a major role in ensuring that the vinyl transfers made for this disc were of the highest-available quality.) And while all of the selections were chosen by Lanza biographer Armando Cesari and me, I can assure you that neither of us has any commercial interest in this CD!
Until now, that is.
I'm delighted to announce that UK-based Sepia Records will be releasing the CD Mario Lanza: Greatest Operatic Recordings on February 9, 2015. This is a Lanza compilation that (for once!) lives up to its title. While it may not contain all of Lanza's greatest operatic performances---no single disc could---my good friend Vincent Di Placido is right on the money when he describes its contents as "all killer, no filler." (Vince, by the way, played a major role in ensuring that the vinyl transfers made for this disc were of the highest-available quality.) And while all of the selections were chosen by Lanza biographer Armando Cesari and me, I can assure you that neither of us has any commercial interest in this CD!
What's on the CD?
1. Von Flotow: Martha. M’apparì [1950]
2. Mozart: Così fan tutte. E voi ridete [1958]
3. R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier. Di rigori armato [1955]
4. Puccini: La bohème. Che gelida manina [1949]
5. Puccini: Tosca. Recondita armonia [1950]
6. Puccini: Tosca. E lucevan le stelle [1950]
7. Puccini: Madama Butterfly. Vogliatemi bene [Live performance with Frances Yeend, soprano, 1947]
8. Puccini: Turandot. Nessun dorma [Live performance] [1948]
9. Cilea: L’Arlesiana. È la solita storia (Lamento di Federico) [Live performance, 1948]
10. Verdi: Rigoletto. È il sol dell’anima…Addio! Addio! [Live performance with Mary Jane Smith, sop., 1949]
11. Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana. Mamma, quel vino è generoso (Addio alla Madre) [1950]
12. Leoncavallo: Pagliacci. Vesti la giubba [1958]
13. Giordano: Andrea Chénier. Un dì all’azzurro spazio (Improvviso) [1950]
14. Giordano: Andrea Chénier. Come un bel dì di maggio [1950]
15. Giordano: Fedora. Amor ti vieta [1955]
16. Meyerbeer: L’Africana. O paradiso [1955]
17. Verdi: Otello. Dio ti giocondi [Outtake with Gloria Boh, sopano, 1955]
18. Verdi: Otello. Dio! Mi potevi scagliar (Monologue) [1955]
19. Verdi: Otello. Niun mi tema (Death of Otello) [1958]
[76 minutes]
Track #17---a ten-minute duet from Otello---is especially noteworthy, as this is not the more familiar commercially released version with the great diva Licia Albanese, but a recording made four months before that rendition. And as great as Lanza is on the Albanese version, he's even better here: more musical, more vocally resplendent, and more terrifying in his characterization of Otello. (The sound quality is acceptable given that the original source was a scratchy 1955 acetate.)
More information about this CD, including specific recording details of each track, can be found on our forum here.
I'll leave you with a paragraph from my liner notes for this disc:
"This CD brings together for the first time arguably the best of Lanza’s live and studio operatic recordings, beginning with the tenor’s forays into lighter, lyric parts, then moving gradually into heavier spinto territory and, finally, dramatic roles. As such, it should be a revelation to many. For the tenor presented here is not the sometimes-erratic artist one hears on numerous lightweight compilations, but an opera singer—and a potentially great one at that. Of course, some will baulk at that description, citing the fact that Lanza performed only two complete roles. But as musicologist Matthew Boyden reminds us, '[That] is a little like claiming that a painter is only ever an artist when his or her work has been shown.'"
The CD is available from Amanzon.com here and at Amazon.co.uk here. A cheaper option (particularly for those outside the UK) is also available here.
1. Von Flotow: Martha. M’apparì [1950]
2. Mozart: Così fan tutte. E voi ridete [1958]
3. R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier. Di rigori armato [1955]
4. Puccini: La bohème. Che gelida manina [1949]
5. Puccini: Tosca. Recondita armonia [1950]
6. Puccini: Tosca. E lucevan le stelle [1950]
7. Puccini: Madama Butterfly. Vogliatemi bene [Live performance with Frances Yeend, soprano, 1947]
8. Puccini: Turandot. Nessun dorma [Live performance] [1948]
9. Cilea: L’Arlesiana. È la solita storia (Lamento di Federico) [Live performance, 1948]
10. Verdi: Rigoletto. È il sol dell’anima…Addio! Addio! [Live performance with Mary Jane Smith, sop., 1949]
11. Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana. Mamma, quel vino è generoso (Addio alla Madre) [1950]
12. Leoncavallo: Pagliacci. Vesti la giubba [1958]
13. Giordano: Andrea Chénier. Un dì all’azzurro spazio (Improvviso) [1950]
14. Giordano: Andrea Chénier. Come un bel dì di maggio [1950]
15. Giordano: Fedora. Amor ti vieta [1955]
16. Meyerbeer: L’Africana. O paradiso [1955]
17. Verdi: Otello. Dio ti giocondi [Outtake with Gloria Boh, sopano, 1955]
18. Verdi: Otello. Dio! Mi potevi scagliar (Monologue) [1955]
19. Verdi: Otello. Niun mi tema (Death of Otello) [1958]
[76 minutes]
Track #17---a ten-minute duet from Otello---is especially noteworthy, as this is not the more familiar commercially released version with the great diva Licia Albanese, but a recording made four months before that rendition. And as great as Lanza is on the Albanese version, he's even better here: more musical, more vocally resplendent, and more terrifying in his characterization of Otello. (The sound quality is acceptable given that the original source was a scratchy 1955 acetate.)
More information about this CD, including specific recording details of each track, can be found on our forum here.
I'll leave you with a paragraph from my liner notes for this disc:
"This CD brings together for the first time arguably the best of Lanza’s live and studio operatic recordings, beginning with the tenor’s forays into lighter, lyric parts, then moving gradually into heavier spinto territory and, finally, dramatic roles. As such, it should be a revelation to many. For the tenor presented here is not the sometimes-erratic artist one hears on numerous lightweight compilations, but an opera singer—and a potentially great one at that. Of course, some will baulk at that description, citing the fact that Lanza performed only two complete roles. But as musicologist Matthew Boyden reminds us, '[That] is a little like claiming that a painter is only ever an artist when his or her work has been shown.'"
The CD is available from Amanzon.com here and at Amazon.co.uk here. A cheaper option (particularly for those outside the UK) is also available here.
Back cover of the CD booklet
Congratulations Derek on making this happen & Armando Cesari for your input also.
I am so grateful & proud to be involved in this project!
What a fantastic & fitting first entry on the "News & Updates" page.
The packaging, design & layout are spot on. Great photos & notes by Derek.
The sound is magnificent, clear, warm & exciting!
I have to say Derek, after listening to the cd straight through, your sequencing is perfect from light repertoire to dramatic, Mario shines in them all.
Great reproductions of Great music by the Greatest Tenor.
Dare I say it's perfect!
Derek McGovern & Armando Cesari be proud!!!
But I'm very happy indeed to hear that you're pleased with the sound quality, order of selections, and overall packaging of this disc. It's quite a relief!
Now let's hope that this CD reaches its target audience---i.e. those who are either unfamiliar with Mario or had previously dismissed him (perhaps on the basis of hearing only his lesser stuff). If they end up sharing your enthusiasm, Vince, then it'll be mission accomplished :)
I might've come late to knowing about Mario Lanza compared to the people who were privileged to pay attention to his voice while he was here, or to those who know music well enough to understand the power and impact of his voice and his interpretive genius. Or his transcendence of genres.
What was, and seems, amazing is that his voice reached out across genres--artificially defined or not, across more than 50 years. Certainly, it enfolded and encompassed my heart and mind for the long term, as no other voice has--popular, classical, blues, rock, jazz, folk, operatic, whatever.
The thing is, once Lanza's voice is part of you, you want to know and hear more, but it's hard to find the pathways of Lanza's legacy, that is, of the good stuff, recordings that represent that legacy in all its diversity, at its best (popular, Neapolitan, operatic) over time, even over the brief span he sang for us--in spite of the rather miraculous survival and influence of more than half a century.
But it's Mario Lanza's "fault." He made music that keeps on speaking to us.
It's easy to forget that his voice and the music he sang are historical legacies now.
So, I'm excited for this CD. Operatic selections, carefully chosen and refined, with a musical narrative and trajectory, liner notes that contextualize why Lanza is critically important to musical history. And mostly, the care and conservation of people who know how music dwells in our hearts and minds and its unspeakable impact.
Wow!
Countdown mode. Thank you so much, Derek, Armando, and Vince.
Congratulations to Derek Mc Govern who initiated the project, to Vince for his unfailing enthusiasm and help, and to Sepia Records for believing in our dream.
Philip Tropea tenor www.youtube.com,
author of, 'Marco', www.amazon.com
I'm looking for an agent, actor, producer to film my dramatic novel of a tenor superstar matinee idol.
http://www.propermusic.com/product-details/Mario-Lanza-Greatest-Operatic-Recordings-184452
Sepia Records has truly done Lanza proud with the design, putting Sony/BMG's often-amateurish-looking efforts to shame. Of course, I'd seen the mock-up version a few months back, but I wasn't prepared for such a gorgeous-looking booklet---and so generously filled too.
As for the CD itself, I hadn't quite anticipated the sheer impact of listening to it from start to finish. 76 minutes of Lanza in consistently great form! It's overwhelming, actually. God knows how *newcomers* to the man's singing are going to react when they hear this disc.
I can't wait for this C.D. to be released. I intend ordering it so I will be one of the first to get it. Thank goodness Derek that you have been able to get some-one to do this kind of C.D. It has been a long time coming. The opportunities in the past that have been ignored makes ones mind boggle. There is so much of Mario's lighter repertoire available and no one 'till now has been able to get a recording company to do what you have Derek, achieved. Good on you and thank you very much.
I have been a fan of Mario since I saw "The Great Caruso" at the ripe old age of 9 yrs. While I did not become famous, he did inspire me to try singing. I had a bit of a start as I learned the piano at school but it was always the singing I wanted most to do. Anyway
enough garbling, thank you again Derek, from what Vince said about the sound quality I can't wait to get my copy.
Michele
Inevitably, there'll be people complaining that I've left off such-and-such a track, but we've squeezed in as much as possible on the disc, and I do feel that 76 minutes is very generous on Sepia's part. (Besides, there's always the chance that we'll get a Volume 2, especially if this one sells!) I'm particularly chuffed that the CD ends with almost *twenty* minutes from Verdi's Otello (Acts III and IV). That's a far cry from the kind of lightweight material that's dominated Lanza CDs for too long.
Of course, we were spoiled for choice in some instances with more than one excellent version available of arias like the Lamento di Federico, the Improvviso, Vesti la giubba, or the Act III duet from Otello, etc. Indeed, some fans may prefer the 1955 "Serenade" versions of the Lamento and Dio Ti Giocondi to the ones featured here. But the bottom line for me is that there is nothing on this disc that is below par, and *that* is truly a first for a Lanza CD, let alone an operatic one!
Cheers,
Derek
Hope you wont mind, but I am having trouble pr-ordering Mario's (or should I say your latest C.D.) Unfortunately our Mastercard had to be changed some months ago and Amazon have accepted my "password" but there is no place to change the Mastercard No. Do you have any suggestions. I'm not too bright when it comes to computers. I would be very grateful if you could help in some way. Even if you order 1 for me and I send you the money. Anything!!
Sorry to be a pain, with many thanks
Michele
Alternatively, you could simply forget about using Amazon, and order the CD from this British site:
http://www.propermusic.com/product-details/Mario-Lanza-Greatest-Operatic-Recordings-184452
It may actually turn out to be the cheaper option if you use the above.
Good luck!
Derek
http://www.sepiarecords.com/sepia1274.html
I see it only costs a total of 8.80 pounds, including postage, for those outside the UK.
Just wonderful; I can’t add any more superlatives to what already has been posted. This is the first operatic Lanza album where I can just lay back and enjoy from start to finish (no need for “skips”) …. It’s like a “necklace of diamonds”. I hope it sells like crazy and Derek and Armando will be working on a second one soon. Good Show Guys!
P.S. Any chance of posting your terrific liner notes?. I want to keep them in a separate folder and I’m too lazy to retype from the CD jacket cover.
http://www.solopassion.com/node/9990#comment-123787
Meanwhile, over on the Rense Lanza forum, there are already calls for follow-up CDs!
Well, all I can say for now is that nothing would give me further pleasure than to work with Sepia again, and I'm sure my amazing collaborators on Greatest Operatic Recordings---Vince and Armando---feel the same way. So watch this space! You just never know....:)
Approaching Sepia Records was an inspired move on Derek's part, given that the label's avowed goal is "to preserve the great recordings of our musical heritage...for the enjoyment and edification of future generations." Congrats, Derek! I'm looking forward to more gems from your wonderful collaboration with Sepia.
Derek, just received the two new CDs. They are wonderful. I have a lot of the songs on the CD "My Italian Soul", but with the sequence of the songs on this CD , even someone like myself with no real knowledge of music can hear the way the voice changed through the years, to me heavier and deeper, but nonetheless still beautiful. Equally beautiful are the pamphlets with the CDs, what loving and moving comments about Lanza, it brought me to tears. Thank you, Mario would be proud.