Word: caruso
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...weighed him in like a jockey every morning. His weight went up in 1950's The Toast of New Orleans, and again in his latest picture. "I gained weight on purpose during those pictures," insists Lanza, who is sensitive on the subject. "I wanted to look like Caruso, didn't I? What do they want to have to do-put a pillow in my middle...
...temper tantrum or a mood of warmhearted generosity. When he learned that Louis B. Mayer, cofounder and chief of the M-G-M lot, seemed to be on his way out, Lanza remembered that Mayer had fought an almost lone battle to get The Great Caruso made. He telephoned Mayer to express concern and ask whether he could help the man long ranked as Hollywood's No. 1 executive. Mayer-as Lanza recalls the incident-wept tears of gratitude...
...much good is a question. Lanza hungers for praise of his voice, and, though he gets plenty, from 500 fan letters a day and from the personal entourage of nine which he rules like a comic-opera Latin American dictator, he also supplies it himself. From idolizing Enrico Caruso as far back as his childhood, he has passed through the stages of imitating Caruso's style, impersonating him in the movies and, finally, patronizing him in interviews...
...Lanza has said, "Caruso was nowhere, nohow, nothing. I don't think I'm as great a singer as Caruso because you never think you are as good as your idol, even though others may say you are better. But at 29, Caruso used to crack on a high B-flat, and I have a record to prove it, which is nothing against him, of course. Sure, I haven't sung in the Met yet. But the day I do, all hell will break loose, the way it did in pictures. The world hasn't heard...
...talent, such as a good batting eye; he likes to swing for a home run every time, and when he has to bunt (as in a soft passage), some listeners have an uneasy feeling that he is trying to punch the ball out of the park. He overworks the Caruso sob. His Italian is rough. He tends to swallow his notes. His brilliant tone is often "white," i.e., lacking resonance. Worst of all, from a singer's point of view, he is forcing his voice, especially in the abandon with which he hurls himself into high notes...