Figure 1.--Here Matrio Lanza sings with a choir in "The Great Caruso". I'm not sure if the boys were from an asctuasl choir.

Mario Lanza in "The Great Caruso" appears with a boys' choir. I'm not sure if the boys were from a choir or just recruited to play the choral parts. Mario Lanza's tenor voice made this film one of the top box-office draws of 1951. What's more, it helped to popularize opera among the general public and to inspire two boys to pursue opera careers -- Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras. In the film, Lanza portrays the legendary tenor Enrico Caruso (1873-1921), who first rises to prominence in his native Italy, then earns critical acclaim in America. In imitating the power and majesty of Caruso's voice, Mario excels. Among the arias he sings are "Celeste Aida" (from Aida, by Giuseppe Verdi), "Vesti la giubba" (from I Pagliacci, by Ruggero Leoncavallo), and "Che Gelida Manina" (from La Boheme, by Giacomo Puccini). Lanza also sings popular selections and performs the Johann Sebastian Bach-Charles Francis Gounod version of Ave Maria with a boy choir. In a PBS television special, acclaimed opera star Domingo, one of the "three tenors," said the 1951 film truly inspired him when he was a boy growing up in Mexico, and that Lanza "was a superstar before that word was even invented." Carreras, another of the three tenors, dedicated one of his albums to Lanza. Ironically -- because of hard living, debilitating stage fright, and an unruly temperament -- Lanza himself never joined an opera company, and opera critics generally snubbed him as an undisciplined lout even though he became the first opera singer to sell more than 50 million albums. "The Great Caruso" won an Academy Award for best sound recording and an Academy Award nomination for best music and best scoring.

Created: 3:24 AM 12/24/2004
Last updated: 3:24 AM 12/24/2004