Serenade / A Cavalcade of Show Tunes
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Composer: Nicholas BrodszkyComposer: Gioachino Rossini
Composer: Ernesto de Curtis
Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Composer: Richard [1] Strauss
Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Composer: Umberto Giordano
Composer: Giacomo Meyerbeer
Composer: Franz [Vienna] Schubert
Composer: Francesco Cilea
Composer: Sigmund Romberg
Composer: Jerome Kern
Composer: Rudolf Friml
Composer: Franz Lehar
Composer: Victor Herbert
Conductor: Ray Heindorf
Conductor: Henri René
Orchestra: Henri René & His Orchestra
Performer: Eugene La Pique
Performer: Jakob Gimpel
Edition: Music CD
Format: Extra tracks, Import
CD Release Date: 2004-08-23
Music Label: Sony Bmg Europe
Soundtracks:
- Serenade (From "Serenade")
- Danza (From "Serenade")
- Torna A Surriento (Featured In "Serenade")
- Boheme (O Soave Fanciulla)
- Der Rosenkavalier (Di Rigori Armato Il Seno)
- Trovatore (De Quella Pira)
- Fedora (Amor Ti Vieta)
- L'africaine (O Paradiso)
- Otello (Dio Ti Gioconda) (Excerpt)
- Otello Monologue (Dio! Mi Potevi Scagliar)
- Ave Maria
- L'arlesiana (Lamento Di Federico)
- Turandot (Nessun Dorma)
- My Destiny
- Seranade (Bonus Track)
- Lover Come Back To Me (From "New Moon") (Bonus Track)
- I've Told Every Little Star (From "Music In The Air") (Bonus Track)
- Donkey Serenade (From "Firefly") (Bonus Track)
- All The Things You Are (From "Very Warm For May") (Bonus Track)
- Giannina Mia (From "Firefly") (Bonus Track)
- Rose Marie (From "Rose Marie") (Bonus Track)
- Yours Is My Heart Alone (Dein Ist Mein Ganzes Herz) (From "Land Of Smiles") (Bon
- Thine Alone (From "Eileen") (Bonus Track)
- Will You Remember (Sweetheart) (From "Maytime") (Bonus Track)
- Gypsy Love Song (Slumber On, My Little Gypsy Sweetheart) (From "Fortune Teller")
- Only A Rose (From "Vagabond King") (Bonus Track)
- Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! (From "Naughty Marietta") (Bonus Track)
Music reviews of Serenade / A Cavalcade of Show Tunes
Music Review: A Vocal Spectacular
Rating: 5 Stars
On August 27, 1956, Mario Lanza stepped into Republic Studios to effect the most spectacular redemption ever achieved by a singing artist. On that day and in two subsequent sessions, he recorded the 12 songs that would comprise a "Cavalcade of Show Tunes," an LP I remember purchasing when it was released in 1957. It appears in toto on this CD, along with the original liner notes and the entire sound track of Mario's 1956 movie, Serenade. All the recording were made at roughly the same time in Lanza's career and captures the voice in warm, powerful, robust form. This is an extended review of the Cavalcade of Show Tunes; other reviewers have done justice to the Serenade portion.
First, though, the redemption part. In May of 1956, Mario was at the microphone at Warner Studios, where he had triumphed in his recordings (here reproduced) of the soundtrack for the movie "Serenade" less than a year earlier. It was an historic event, for Mario Lanza was about to produce the first LP he ever minted specifically as a themed album of songs.
Previous albums were made to look like new releases, but they were retreads of Lanza radio broadcasts and occasional singles recorded years earlier. Those LPs sported names like the goofy alliteration "Magic Mario," or a pretend theme, "Love Songs and a Neapolitan Serenade," announcing a sloppy mix of ditties from various sources. There was a different gorgeous ingénue on every cover, but ironically the same picture of Mario.
This time all the songs were recorded at one time, under one baton, that of Irving Aaronson, and they boasted a real theme epitomized in the title "Lanza on B'way," the 12 inch square surface being too small to fit the word "Broadway." A toothy blonde graced the cover, but Lanza's visage was nowhere to be found.
The voice was nowhere to be found, either. It is generally agreed that these recordings are by far the worst ever committed to wax by Mario Lanza.
A mere three months after "B'way," however, the tenor was conducted by an inspired Henri René and accompanied by the Jeff Alexander Choir as he cut his second themed album, an arcane collection of tunes from dated operettas and treacly musicals. If I had had anything to say about this album, I'd have nixed every number in favor of the fabulous show tunes then current or much more recent. The world is so lucky I had nothing to say about this album.
Those orchestrations are mind-blowing. I remember placing Side 1 on my tiny turntable, moving the needle to the outermost band, and stepping back to hear "Lover, Come Back to Me" for the first time. I was agog. Something twixt jazz, blues, and a sort of proto-rock accosted my ears. The raucous instrumentation belied Mario's entrance with the muted "The sky was blue.."
Immediately, I knew I was in for something special. From the jazzy "Lover, Come Back to Me" to the breezy "Rose Marie," from the heart-thumping "Giannina Mia," to the ethereal "Gypsy Love Song," from the majestic "All the Things You Are" to the amusingly Sousa-esque "Tramp Tramp Tramp," these orchestrations complemented the Lanza voice as never before.
Speaking of which, commentators claim the Lanza voice is darker here. Nonsense. The voice is richer, and, most astoundingly, the voice achieves a warmth unmatched even by the magnificent "The Student Prince" soundtrack. It's that warmth that seizes your heart and won't let go. The voice is free from bottom to top.
And what a top! On the basis of this album alone, you would be justified in asserting that no tenor, certainly no American tenor, ever sang high notes with such a combination of power, abandon, and sheer beauty. The final notes of "Giannina Mia," "Thine Alone," "Lover, Come Back to Me," and the inconceivably brilliant "Only a Rose" are testimony of the highest credibility. And just listen to the last measures of "Rose Marie," "All the Things You Are," and "Will You Remember." Now name a tenor, today or ever, who left sounds like that echoing hypnotically in your ears!
But the power is only one dimension. The aching sweetness of "Gypsy Love Song" and "I've Told Every Little Star" speak sublimely to the first blush of young love, while "The Donkey Serenade" and "Tramp Tramp Tramp" could bring a smile to the faces on Rushmore.
Through it all, Mario Lanza maintains a near impeccable vocal control, shifting registers seamlessly, shading and coloring at will, and achieving near-perfect pitch. "Giannina Mia" is an exception; the voice gets a bit wild, but the overall effect is so winning and lusty that I love it unreservedly.
This album, in short, is a bold, endlessly inventive collaboration between artist and conductor/arranger. Mario Lanza sings with a warmth, intensity, and energy that come from the very depths of the soul, that reach those same depths in each of us. This was the final album he was to sing in America, and except for three singles, these were his swan songs in the country of his birth. What a beautiful monument to leave upon his native soil.
The great tenor asks, in one of those monumental songs, "To life's last faint ember, will you remember, springtime, lovetime, May?" To which we who cherish the incandescence of his legacy of song say, yes, we will remember spring and love and May, for you have brought them to us in every measure, in every note.
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