Micaele Sparacino General Director and Conductor

About Mario Lanza

Who was this American singer who shot to fame in the 1950s? A young tenor who performed many of Lanza's favorite songs and arias in Opera Bel Canto's benefit concert A Tribute to Mario Lanza on May 22, 2004, reminds us of Lanza's meteoric career.

By Antonio Giuliano

I celebrate Mario Lanza’s legacy because of his service to our country as a member of fhe U.S. Army during World War II. Mario spent most of his nearly three years of service in his Army uniform, entertaining the troops while touring with the Army Air Force all-soldier musical revue "On the Beam" and as a member of the "Winged Victory" company.

Mario served his country with his God-given voice to inspire, through music, the men who laid down their lives so that you and I may be able to have the freedoms we so dearly cherish today.

Early years

Mario Lanza was born in South Philadelphia as Alfredo Arnold Cocozza on January 31,1921. Antonio Cocozza, Mario's father, was born in Filignano, Italy and emigrated to the U.S. when he was just 16 years old. He later served in the U.S. Army Infantry and was severely wounded in the battle of the Meuse-Argonne Forest.

Mario's mother, Maria Lanza, emigrated to America at the tender age of 6 months from a town not far from Filignano called Tocco da Casauria, in the Abruzzi region. This is how Mario decided on his name Mario Lanza -- by taking the masculine form of his mother's maiden name.

Maria and Tony met in South Philadelphia in 1919 and were married after a brief courtship. They moved into the Lanza family home at 636 Christian Street, South Philadelphia, where two years later "Freddie" was born.

The family later moved to 2040 Mercy Street, also in South Philadelphia, where Mario received his first piano (which still sits in his son Damon's home), a surprise gift from his mother and father. Mario attended several schools but was best known at Southern High School. His teachers claimed he would much rather sing than study.

Freddie becomes Mario

Mario, then known as Freddie, was raised in an atmosphere of opera. His family played Caruso recordings on a daily basis. He began to sing along with the records, and the more he listened, the more he sang. His father and mother took him to a voice teacher, Antonio Scarduzzo, a baritone, who helped Mario nurture his voice. After studying with Scarduzzo for a year and a half, Mario studied with Irene Williams. Mario's mother worked at two jobs to pay for the lessons, because Antonio's war injury to his right hand prevented him from working.

William K. Huff, concert manager at the Philadelphia Academy of Music, later arranged for an audition for Mario with the famed Serge Koussevitsky. Koussevitsky was so impressed that he immediately invited Mario to Tanglewood in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, where he had a music school for promising singers and musicians. As Mario later reflected in an interview, "I didn't even know what the Berkshires were or even where they were." This is where Mario sang his first role in student opera, Fenton in Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Mario received great reviews from the Metropolitan Opera people as well as music critics. When he was drafted by the Army, he was not sent overseas because of a bad eye. He auditioned for a troupe led by Peter Lind Hayes, which gave concerts at Army bases. He joined the cast of Winged Victory, a musical put on by Moss Hart, which ran until May 1944.

In January 1945, Mario received a medical release from a hospital in Walla Walla, Washington. He returned to California and his sweetheart, Betty Lyhan (not Hicks, as many believe) and they were married in Beverly Hills, California, barely 3 months later. Mario and Betty then moved to New York so Mario could further his studies.

On his way

It was while studying with Polly Robinson that Mario met his soon-to-be manager Sam Weiler, (whom he later sued for misappropriation of his money). Weiler funded the Lanzas' living expenses and Mario's voice studies with the understanding that he would receive a percentage of all Mario's future earnings. Through Weiler, Mario began to study with the famed Enrico Rosati who had earlier coached the famous Gigli. It has been said that upon hearing Mario's voice, Rosati looked up to the heavens and exclaimed, "I have been waiting for this voice to come along for many, many years." Mario studied with Rosati for about a year and a half and then joined Agnes Davis for a tour of Canada. After this tour Mario was slated to start a tour with the Bel Canto Trio with soprano Francis Yeend and baritone George London, which would take them to Canada, Mexico, Newfoundland and of course, America.

While performing with Francis Yeend at the Hollywood Bowl on August 28, 1947, Mario impressed Louis B. Mayer, head of the MGM motion picture studio, who was in the audience with Kathryn Grayson. Mario would later make his first two films with Ms.Grayson. Mario sang to a thunderous ovation. The best was yet to come.

An MGM screen test was set up for Mario at once so that all the producers, directors and sound engineers could see and hear Mr. Mayer's newest find. After singing several arias and duets with Ms. Grayson, they signed him to a six-month contract with a $10,000 bonus and $750 weekly salary, until his first movie could be arranged. The other six months of the year Mario was free to pursue other interests such as concerts, radio etc.

Mario arrives

Mario made his first movie, That Midnight Kiss, in 1949, with Ms. Grayson, an already well-established star. Soon thereafter, he made his professional New Orleans opera debut as Pinkerton in Madam Butterfly with soprano Tomiko Kanazawa. Astounded by Mario's voice, the critics wrote such things as, "Rarely have we seen a more superbly romantic tenor," and "His exceptionally beautiful voice helps immeasurably." Mario sang two performances of this opera but, sadly, this was to be the last full opera Mario would ever sing.

He went on to make several more movies, namely Toast of New Orleans in 1950, The Great Caruso (Mario's favorite) in 1951, Because You're Mine in1952, The Student Prince (featuring his singing only, due to a dispute with MGM) in 1954, Serenade in 1956, Seven Hills of Rome in 1958 and his last picture, For the First Time in 1959.

In Mario's short but productive career, he managed to do many concerts and radio shows such as Life With Luigi, Great Moments in Music, replacing Jan Peerce in 1945, the famous Coca-Cola Shows in 1951-52 and several more. The one elusive concert that no book has ever mentioned, due to lack of knowledge about it, was the one in San Rafael, California in 1948 with the famed opera diva, Rise Stevens.