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| The Concert Tour of the Bel canto Trio | |||||||
On Mario Lanza's recommendation, his Army pal George London* became the third member of the trio. At about the same time he was also Rosati's student. From July 1947 to May 1948, they sang opera arias to popular acclaim in cities in the Eastern and Midwestern US, Canada and Mexico. But everywhere they went, it was Lanza who was the star of the show. The concert at the Grant Park Festival in Chicago was the most memorable, packing in over 120,000 on two evening performances. (It is still written about even today, most recently in connection with tenor (and Lanza fan) Richard Leech's Tribute to Mario Lanza.) The tour was briefly interrupted in August when Lanza was invited to sing at the Hollywood Bowl. Needless to say, it was a resounding success. Hollywood moguls and celebrities were in the audience. Within days, MGM offered Mario Lanza a contract, hopeful - if not certain - that they had "a singing Clark Gable." *London would later become a renowned bass-baritone singer at the MET. Today there is a George London Foundation which grants one of the prestigious music awards given annually to a talented young opera singer.
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