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| A MOVIE STAR IS BORN! and he sings OPERA!!! | |||||||
| Starring MARIO LANZA and KATHRYN GRAYSON (JAVA-enabled browser required for slide show, which may take a few moments to load.) |
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That Midnight Kiss (1949)
was Mario Lanza's first movie
(slide 1). It is the first of two movies he made with Kathryn Grayson
who to this day is a great friend of the Lanza family. Like all Lanza
movies, it showcased his famous tenor voice. In this first film, he sang
popular songs as well as opera arias, such as Celeste
Aida (from Verdi's Aida)
and Una furtiva
lagrima (from Donizetti's Elisir
d'amore). To MGM's surprise,
the movie was a hit. There was no need to call him "a singing Clark
Gable." MARIO
LANZA was a winner! The Toast of New Orleans (1950) was his next movie, also with Kathryn Grayson (slides 2-4). The song from this movie Be My Love became America's favorite song hit. It broke all sales records, selling over copies in one year. Here again, Mario Lanza sang arias such as the Flower Song (from Bizet's Carmen), O Paradis (from Meyerbeer's L'Africaine), M'apparai (from Flutow's Martha) and the duet from Act 1 of Puccini's Madama Butterfly.
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