Word: lanza
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...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...
...Park. Lanza has frequently pictured the Met as showering offers on him, but the Met itself seems to know nothing about them. Even critical listeners agree that he has notable power, richness and range-though not necessarily all at the same time. He can sail up to D-flat above high C with ease, and he has sung a low A that gives some baritones trouble. But he lacks musical taste, discipline and the years of training needed to settle even the greatest voice...
...prides himself on his chest (50 in.) and biceps (17 in.) and his prowess in weightlifting, boxing and baseball, Lanza treats his voice as if it were a special athletic 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...
...such criticism, Lanza, snorts: "I can't help it if God gave me a big voice. They say I'm pushing and making a tremendous amount of tone. Well, you know what? When I push, it gets ugly, out of focus. I say to myself, 'Watch it, Mario; it's blurred.' I have an ear. I know. Tito Schipa said to me, 'Mario, you have the greatest given throat ever heard in a young man. Take care of it.' I am taking care...
Dead-End Kid. The gift from God came into the world Jan. 31, 1921. Mario (real name: Alfredo Arnold Cocozza) was born and grew up in South Philadelphia. As part of the self-made Lanza legend, he sometimes likes to shock friends or interviewers by painting a lurid picture of his old neighborhood as a hotbed of crime, where stray gangster bullets might have nipped his career at any moment. Outraged by some of the tall tales, South Philadelphians once hurled stones and tomatoes at Lanza's grandfather's home, and made a public ceremony of smashing...