For the First Time (Soundtrack)/Mario Lanza Sings Caruso Favorites
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Composer: Sandro and Paola, Vincenzo di TaccaniComposer: George Stoll
Composer: Eduardo di Capua
Composer: Bette
Composer: Asso
Composer: Ruggero Leoncavallo
Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Composer: Edvard Grieg
Composer: Franz [Vienna] Schubert
Composer: Italian Traditional
Composer: Ernesto de Curtis
Composer: Stanislao Gastaldon
Composer: Stefano Donaudy
Composer: Enrico Caruso
Composer: Arturo Buzzi-Peccia
Composer: Paolo Tosti
Composer: Luigi Gordigiani
Conductor: Carlo Savina
Conductor: Callinicos
Conductor: Paul Baron
Edition: Music CD
Format: Soundtrack
CD Release Date: 2001-05-08
Music Label: Collectables
Soundtracks:
- Come Prima (For the First Time), song
- Tarantella (From "For the First Time")
- O sole Mio
- Neapolitan Dance (From "For the First Time")
- Hofbrauhaus Song (From "For the First Time")
- O mon amour (From "For the First Time")
- Mazurka (From "For the First Time")
- Pineapple Pickers (From "For the First Time")
- Vesti La Giubba
- Finale
- Act 1
- Jeg elsker Dig (I Love but Thee), song for voice & piano, Op. 5/3
- Ellens Gesang III ("Ave Maria"), song for voice & piano, D. 839 (Op. 52
- Vieni sul mar, song
- Senza nisciuno for voice & orchestra
- Musica proibita, for voice & orchestra, Op. 5
- Vaghissima sembianza, for voice & piano (or orchestra)
- Serenata
- Lolita, serenata spagnola for voice & orchestra
- Luna d'estate, for voice & piano/orchestra
- Canzoni d'Amaranta (4) for voice & piano, No. 2, "L'alba separa dalla l
- Pour un Baiser for voice & piano (or orchestra)
- La Mia canzone, for voice & piano/orchestra
- Ideale for voice & piano (or orchestra)
- Santa Lucia, Neapolitan song
Music reviews of For the First Time (Soundtrack)/Mario Lanza Sings Caruso Favorites
Music Review: Impressive performances from Lanza's final years
Rating: 4 Stars
This CD contains most of the soundtrack from Lanza's final movie, the 1958 For the First Time, together with the 1959 album Mario Lanza Sings Caruso Favorites.
By 1958 Lanza's lirico spinto tenor had darkened significantly, acquiring a baritonal richness in its middle and lower registers, while still retaining the celebrated top notes for which he was justly famous. On his best days, he was also a more sensitive singer than he had sometimes been in his Hollywood period. This is immediately noticeable on the operatic selections included here: Vesti La Giubba; the Otello Death Scene (Niun Mi Tema); and the Grand March from Aida. On the first two numbers, Lanza phrases beautifully and avoids marring these arias with the hammy histrionics that many more celebrated names have indulged in elsewhere. Dark with haunting overtones, his voice is by now ideal for both Canio and Otello.
The Grand March scene is also impressive, with Lanza delivering some staggering B flats over the deafening Rome Opera Orchestra and chorus. All three operatic selections from For the First Time were recorded (and subsequently filmed) at the Rome Opera House, and the effect that Lanza had on the musicians present was extraordinary. "A very musical tenor of enormous possibilities, with an exceptional timbre" was the verdict of the theatre's then Artistic Director Riccardo Vitale.
The first half of For the First Time is much lighter, and includes the pleasant title song, Come Prima, along with a sweet and all-too-brief O Mon Amour. There is also the novelty of hearing Lanza singing in German in the rousing Hofbrauhaus Song, as well as a ridiculous rock and roll number called Pineapple Pickers. (Typically, BMG place this next to Vesti la Giubba on the CD, with no thought for the massive jump in musical style and content between the tracks.) O Sole Mio sounds a little laboured here, and rings out much more thrillingly in the movie. But with the exception of the videotape of the actual film (reviewed elsewhere on this site), many of these selections have never sounded better. There is still the ever-present sandiness that mars all of Lanza's stereo releases, but at least this is an improvement on the soundtrack's earlier outing on the Double Feature CD.
My only gripe is that the delightful Cosi Fan Tutte trio - E Voi Ridete - has been omitted. Instead we have three uneventful (and irritating) non-Lanza musical interludes. *Mercifully* missing, however, is the tenor's La Donna 'e Mobile. Uncharacteristically strained, it was his least impressive performance of the aria, and the only vocal lapse in the entire film.
The final twelve selections from the Caruso Favorites album also feature Lanza in mostly fine form. As with all the tenor's 1959 recordings, however, the reproduction of his voice (though curiously *not* the orchestra) is less than ideal, and the ever-present distortion - particularly on his top notes - mars some of the best moments. Gripes aside, this is an important album in the Lanza canon. Among the highlights are the Neapolitan song Senza Nisciuno; a tasteful Vaghissima Sembianza, replete with two beautiful High As; the daunting Serenata; and three exquisite Tosti songs: L'Alba Separa Dalla Luce L'Ombra, Pour Un Baiser and Ideale.
L'Alba Separa dalla Luce l'Ombra deserves special mention. Lanza is appropriately operatic on this miniature masterpiece, and although his voice sounds a little heavy at times, the impact of his performance is very moving. From "Chiudimi, O notte, nel tuo sen materno," (Envelop me, O night, in your maternal [...]) onwards, Lanza is in full control of the song, faltering only slightly on the climactic note on "eterno" (though this may, in fact, be due to the distortion). Lapses aside, L'Alba Separa is a fine example of Lanza's artistic maturity.
Among the few lesser moments, Mario runs out of steam in the second half of La Mia Canzone, and is subjected to an overly boisterous arrangement on Santa Lucia, which sounds more akin to a march than a lilting ode to the Bay of Naples! At times Lanza does sound tired, and as one perceptive reviewer has noted, we miss the characteristic smile of his earlier voice. Ironically, critics and habitual Lanza-knockers are much more likely to praise this album for the very reason that the tenor *is* so subdued.
Caruso Favorites and For the First Time - together with the brilliant Neapolitan album Mario! Lanza At His Best (also reviewed on this site) - represent the tenor's most impressive singing from the final period of his life. As Lanza authority Lindsay Perigo has noted, the tenor's voice on all three albums is often "hauntingly ethereal." In short, these are not performances that are easily forgotten.
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