features

Mario Lanza At M-G-M
By Rudy Belhmer
Liner Notes From The Rhino CD
http://rhino.com/Features/liners/72958lin.html

In the summer of 1947, up-and-coming tenor Mario Lanza interrupted a concert tour to fill in for a late cancellation at the Hollywood Bowl. He electrified the audience and received a standing ovation. Ida Koverman, Louis B. Mayer's executive secretary, was one of the enthusiastic attendees. Earlier, she was sent some test records Lanza made and had played them for Mayer. Both were impressed.

Shortly after the Bowl concert, Mayer sent a message to his executives, producers, and some directors to convene on Stage One at the studio. No one knew the reason. As M-G-M producer Joe Pasternak tells it in his autobiography (Easy The Hard Way): "After a few moments a magnificent singer thundered at us from a battery of speakers. . . . The voice was rich, warm, sensuous, virile, capable of incredible highs and able to go down in register as deep as a baritone's. . . .There were three records in all. Then Mr. Mayer stepped before us. `Gentlemen, you've heard the voice . . . Now I want you to meet the singer!'"

Later, after Lanza left, Mayer told the impressed assemblage that he was being signed by M-G-M and if any of the producers were interested they could stay on. All eyes turned to Pasternak, who said, "I like him. I like him very much." "All right, Joe," Mayer replied, "he's all yours."

It made perfect sense that Joe Pasternak was interested in doing a film with Lanza. He had produced young Deanna Durbin's earliest pictures at Universal Studios, induced legendary conductor Leopold Stokowski to do a film, brought concert pianist-conductor José Iturbi and operatic tenor Lauritz Melchior to M-G-M for featured roles, and had made various pictures with M-G-M's resident young sopranos Jane Powell and Kathryn Grayson. As it turned out, Pasternak produced all five of Lanza's M-G-M films -- each of which is represented on this album.

M-G-M was the only studio at that time to have a record company and the first to make soundtrack recordings from musicals and dramatic films. Naturally, M-G-M wanted to make soundtrack albums >from Lanza's films. But Lanza had previously signed a contract with RCA -- even though he had made only test records for them prior to his going to M-G-M.

"We tried to make a deal, and RCA said, `No, we have sponsored this guy for years. He's got possibilities, and we've got a big stake in him.' And who knew he was going to be that big," said Jesse Kaye, then head of M-G-M Records on the West Coast.

Of course, Lanza recorded many of the songs from his M-G-M pictures for RCA. With one exception, these were made at another time and place with different arrangements, orchestrations, and vocal partners.

But here, for the first time, are selections from the actual soundtrack recordings of Mario Lanza's M-G-M Hollywood films -- ones that capture the essence of what audiences responded to then and still respond to now in Lanza's voice.

That Midnight Kiss (1949): Kathryn Grayson and occasional featured player José Iturbi were the stars of this 1949 Technicolor musical, with the tenor's appearance set up with the billing "and introducing Mario Lanza." However, Lanza is definitely one of the stars of the film. He was given a considerable range of music -- operatic, popular, and concert standards -- to sing solo or with Grayson.

Beginning this collection is the lovely "They Didn't Believe Me," Jerome Kern's first attention-getting hit. In addition to an exquisite melody, the song had a new and revolutionary structure for the time (1914). In You Must Remember This -- Popular Songwriters From 1900-1980 music historian David Ewen writes: "A climax is achieved with a magical (and totally unexpected) change of key; a new four-measure thought is suddenly interpolated into the recapitulation section of the chorus. . . . The rhythm is changed . . . without warning . . . ."

Lanza and Grayson certainly do the composition justice. His character serenades Grayson's outside of her home in the evening (he has brought a string ensemble in a truck). She appears at the window and joins him in a most appealing duet.

"Love Is Music" is based on the last movement of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony (1888), adapted for this film in the guise of an opera excerpt by Charles and André Previn with lyrics by William Katz. The scene is an operatic performance, and it concludes the film. Lanza, Grayson, a chorus, and orchestra with Iturbi conducting, are the participants who lead us to a rousing finish.

Most reviewers of the film were enthusiastic about Lanza, yielding such praise as "His voice has quality and warmth," "A resounding tenor voice," and "Standout singing and capable thesping." More important, audiences loved him. Lanza was an instant star at M-G-M.

The Toast Of New Orleans (1950): With Lanza's popularity assured, producer Joe Pasternak began putting together a follow-up vehicle, also to star Kathryn Grayson and with debonair David Niven added for good measure. In That Midnight Kiss Lanza plays a truck driver who becomes an opera singer; in this, his second film, he is a Louisiana fisherman who becomes an opera star in 1905.

Pasternak was responsible for composer Nicholas Brodszky coming to Hollywood. The two had worked together many years before in Europe, and they met again in New York in 1949 when Brodszky was there visiting from England, where he had spent the late 1930s and the World War II years writing musicals and scores for British films (French Without Tears [1939], The Way To The Stars [1945], etc., etc.). Pasternak was searching for a special composer to write new songs for Lanza's next film, and sensing that Lanza's and Brodszky's "styles were harmonious," he sold Louis B. Mayer (and Lanza) on Brodszky. The composer and noted lyricist Sammy Cahn were teamed (by Pasternak) for the first time. Cahn, after referring to "the startling brilliance" of Lanza's voice said, "I believe he had a soft pedal and a loud pedal in his throat."

Brodszky and Cahn's "The Tina Lina" is the most atypical M-G-M Lanza number in concept and presentation. But it is very typical of numbers from M-G-M musical productions of the time. Lanza even dances as well as sings, along with group dancers and the M-G-M vocal chorus. James Mitchell and Rita Moreno contribute the more intricate dancing -- all to the marvelous musical designs of M-G-M's gifted arranger-orchestrator Conrad Salinger.

Although Brodszky and Cahn wrote several songs for the picture, "Be My Love" became a spectacular success -- 21 weeks in the Top 10 on the Hit Parade, with more than 2 million single records (78 and 45 rpm) purchased. It was Lanza's best-selling recording.

Apparently the genesis for this song was many years earlier -- though how many is unclear. Pasternak said that Brodszky told him it was a little tune he used to play in the café in Budapest in 1933. But in 1952 Brodszky told journalist Howard McClay that he was working on the song in 1942 while he was in London composing film scores. Here, Lanza and Kathryn Grayson sing it with great power and zest.

The title of the song "I'll Never Love You" is not to be taken literally. The Lanza character goes on to sing that he will do much more than merely love the character portrayed by Grayson. There are two renditions of this charming number in the film. Included here is the first, which is introduced and interwoven with concertina flourishes.

Various operatic excerpts are represented in The Toast Of New Orleans, but by far the most important was saved for the conclusion of the film -- the duet from Puccini's 1904 Madama Butterfly (the finale from the opera's Act 1). The libretto concerns the tragic love of an American naval officer, on duty in Japan, for a Japanese woman. Here is their passionate and ecstatic song of love, rendered by Lanza and Grayson, with the opera's traditional vocal and orchestral published parts being used (as is the case for many of the operatic selections in his films). Puccini's poignant dramas characteristically contained a tender vein of lyricism that is bittersweet in character.

A note for tune detectives: To those familiar with the popular songs "One Night Of Love" (1934) and "Dearly Beloved" (1942), listen carefully to this Madama Butterfly duet for rather striking parallels.

The Great Caruso (1951): The extraordinary power, warmth, and purity of Enrico Caruso's voice, combined with his acting ability, won him recognition as one of the finest tenors of all time (he was also Lanza's idol). He achieved great fame internationally, specifically at the Metropolitan Opera, where he was leading tenor until shortly before his death in 1921.

Pioneer producer Jesse L. Lasky bought the screen rights to Caruso's life from the singer's widow in 1945. At first, Lasky thought of using Caruso's old recordings (after careful processing using a method whereby the technicians could take down the volume of the original orchestras backing Caruso, retain the singer's voice, and rerecord with a new orchestra over the muted old one). But in 1949 Lasky sold the rights to M-G-M after Lanza became a star with That Midnight Kiss.

Although The Great Caruso as it evolved bore only a vague relationship to the tenor's actual life, it was a marvelous musical feast of operatic excerpts. Lanza was surrounded by some of the major operatic singing talents of the time -- primarily soprano Dorothy Kirsten, who has a leading role as a Metropolitan soprano.

Verdi's Aida (1871) had been commissioned by the khedive (Turkish viceroy) of Egypt, who wanted an original work to open a new opera house in Cairo built to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal. With its grandiose spectacle, pageantry, elaborate ballets, and highly dramatic music, Aida became the most crowd-pleasing of the "grand operas." Aida is the daughter of the Ethiopian king. Enslaved by the Egyptians, she is loved by Rhadames (Lanza), who becomes the General of the Egyptian Army. The opera's famous aria, "Celeste Aida," is Rhadames' rhapsody on Aida's beauty, heard early in the first act.

The extremely popular "Ave Maria" ("Meditation") was written circa 1854 by Charles Gounod to the accompaniment of Bach's First Prelude in C Major. There are, of course, other "Ave Marias," most notably Franz Schubert's. Lanza renders the sentimental song in a cathedral setting with choir and organ accompaniment. Although the St. Luke's Choristers (boys) prerecorded the piece, it was decided by musical director Johnny Green to use Jacqueline Allen, a female soprano, to sing part of the song with Lanza (rather than one of the boys). When the scene was filmed several weeks later at M-G-M, the group was not available, so the St. Paul's Choristers substituted on camera, with a boy lip-synching to Allen's vocal part. (How's that again?)

Donizetti's Lucia Di Lammermoor (1835), based on Sir Walter Scott's novel The Bride Of Lammermoor, is filled with violent emotions. The sextet performance in Act II, Scene 2 is the logical climax of the drama and is without question one of the finest and most famous ensemble numbers in all of opera. Lanza is joined by the Metropolitan Opera's Dorothy Kirsten, Blanche Thebom, Giuseppe Valdengo, Nicola Moscona, and Gilbert Russell.

Rigoletto (1851), based on Victor Hugo's play Le Roi S'Amuse, was the first of Verdi's major lyrical operas to win international fame. Early in the third act, the Duke of Mantua (Lanza) sings cynically about all women in one of the most favored of tenor arias, "La Donna É Mobile."

Another perennially popular tenor aria is from Leoncavallo's Pagliacci (1892). The moving "Vesti La Giubba" ("On With The Play") comes at the end of the opera's first act. It is the tragic lament of a clown (Lanza) who must make people laugh while his own heart is broken. Lanza's longtime conductor-accompanist-musical director Constantine Callinicos said in his biography of the tenor (The Mario Lanza Story) that the singer "like Caruso had a `sob' in his voice, and a fantastic ability to give phrases extra emphasis. . . . It stemmed from an intense feeling for each song. He lived what he sang."

The Great Caruso proved to be an enormous success. At a cost of $1.85 million, according to M-G-M corporate records, by 1956 it had made a net profit of $4 million! And the reviews, for the most part, were extremely positive. Even eminent music critic Sigmund Spaeth said that Lanza had "by nature an overwhelming voice, with a distinctive personal quality."

Because You're Mine (1952): Producer Joe Pasternak thought a change of pace (for the singer) would be beneficial at this point. Hence Because You're Mine, a contemporary story about an opera singer who is drafted into the Army, then falls in love with his sergeant's sister (an aspiring singer), which leads to various complications. The Student Prince was slated to follow.

The team of Nicholas Brodszky and Sammy Cahn was brought back, contributing the title song, "Because You're Mine." Although it was not quite the phenomenal success that the team's previous "Be My Love" had been, it was still one of the Hit Parade's Top 10 for 21 consecutive weeks in 1952-53, and it was one of Lanza's biggest selling records. In the film he performs the number with soprano Doretta Morrow, on leave from a leading role in the original Broadway production of The King And I.

The eclectic music menu in Because Your Mine is first-rate. Jerome Kern's lovely evergreen "All The Things You Are" (1939) -- lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II -- proves what Lanza could do with a superior standard. But, for reasons unknown, the number was deleted before the picture's release. Fortunately, the outtake was preserved and is presented here for the first time.

One of Mexico's top composers, Agustin Lara (who didn't read music and picked out some 600 tunes on a piano or guitar and had them transcribed by a music-writing secretary), composed "Granada" in 1932. It became a lasting international favorite and here is performed with authority by Lanza.

Because You're Mine opens with the finale of Mascagni's prize-winning, overwhelmingly successful opera Cavalleria Rusticana (1890). Based on a story by Giovanni Verga, the one-act opera is emotionally turbulent with a full barrage of loves, jealousies, infidelities, and revenge. Lanza's character, challenged to a duel that he (rightly) senses may prove fatal to him, bids his mother a poignant farewell in this excerpt. The duel occurs offstage, which accounts for the long orchestral section prior to the conclusion.

Composer-organist Albert Hay Malotte set "The Lord's Prayer" to music in 1935. It had also been done by Tchaikovsky and others, but Malotte's version is the favored. Lanza, accompanied only by an organ, starts quietly, then gradually builds to the soaring and thrilling crescendo of "For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, forever."

The reprise of "Because You're Mine," again with Morrow and Lanza, comes at the end of the film with the characteristic lush M-G-M coda approach so recognizable to film (and music) buffs.

The Student Prince (1954): By all accounts Mario Lanza was delighted at the prospect of making the famous Sigmund Romberg operetta, first presented in 1924. Nicholas Brodszky, this time teamed with lyricist Paul Francis Webster, was brought in to augment the score with a few new songs, and Webster also did some modifications to the original Dorothy Donnelly lyrics. The prerecordings went well, with Lanza prepared and in excellent voice. Then trouble. There was his ballooning weight followed by the customary crash diet. During rehearsal prior to shooting, Lanza had serious differences over his interpretation with director Curtis Bernhardt, and the difficulties multiplied. His personal demons took over. Dealing with him, apparently, became impossible. Constantine Callinicos, Lanza's musical director and conductor on the film, recalled: "On the first day of shooting Mario failed to show up for work. . . . The following morning, no Mario. And the morning after that, still no Mario. It went on for days. . . . Several attempts were made to get Mario together with the studio. They all failed."

Producer Pasternak wrote: "After Mario had broken written engagements, the picture was abandoned. . . . The incident was in many ways the most upsetting I had ever known."

Studio head Dore Schary said in his autobiography: "We had no alternative. We had to fire Lanza and sue him for damages incurred by his not doing his job. . . . Lanza was given notice of his discharge. He sued M-G-M for his records. We sued for damages and ownership of his records."

Thoughts turned to singer Vic Damone as a replacement for Lanza with M-G-M's Jane Powell as his costar. But finally -- many months later -- the lawsuit was settled out of court, with M-G-M given permission to use Lanza's recordings of the songs for The Student Prince. The studio rescheduled the production, assigned reliable, moving-right-along contract director Richard Thorpe, tested British stage actor Edmund Purdom to determine, among other things, how well he could lip-synch on camera to Lanza's recordings, cast Ann Blyth opposite Purdom, and shot the entire film in the newly fashionable CinemaScope (and Anscocolor) in 27 days! The final cost of $2.4 million included most, if not all, of the expenses incurred on the scuttled Lanza preproduction and delayed shooting.

The picture, with the gorgeous music and excellent cast of leads and supporting players, turned out quite well, with Purdom doing a particularly good job in the lip synchronization department. Even the vocal transitions from Purdom's speaking voice to Lanza's singing voice were nicely handled. Lanza's presence on the main title and in the advertising and promotion was stressed by the special billing "And the singing voice of Mario Lanza as The Student Prince."

The tracks are all beautifully done. The venerable "Serenade" is given an appropriately dulcet treatment. After a long, serene orchestral introduction, setting the scene for the nocturnal song of love, Lanza delivers a nonforced, moving rendition.

"Deep In My Heart, Dear" is the only duet with Lanza and Ann Blyth in the film. The two blend quite well in this classic Romberg number.

"Beloved," a new song written by Brodszky and Webster, depicts the Student Prince persuading his love (Blyth) to run off with him to Paris -- throwing discretion and duty to the winds. This is the original recorded performance -- stronger and more impassioned than the one used in the film, which was done several days after the initial session. For whatever reason, it was decided that the first interpretation was too overpowering, and Lanza modified his approach on the second recording session. The version presented here has not been heard before and is a memorable conclusion to the album.

Lanza did make three more films: one for Warner Bros. (Serenade [1956]) and two films (Seven Hills Of Rome [1958] and For The First Time [1959]) produced mostly in Italy and (ironically) distributed by M-G-M. He died in Rome in 1959 at age 38, suffering from phlebitis and a blood clot in a coronary artery.

In addition to being an influence on many of today's tenors (Placido Domingo has said that seeing Lanza in The Great Caruso inspired him to become an opera singer), various opera singers who worked with him accorded him high praise for his singing ability (but not his sense of discipline). Dorothy Kirsten has said that Lanza "sounded fantastic . . . . He could have been the American Caruso [if he had made opera his career]."

And now, thankfully, we have a rich assortment of these wonderful soundtrack recordings for the first time on an album -- a major reminder of Mario Lanza's artistic legacy.

-- Rudy Behlmer (Behlmer is the author of several books, including Memo From David O. Selznick, Behind The Scenes: The Making Of . . ., and Inside Warner Bros.)
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