Mario Lanza Sings Songs from The Student Prince and The Desert Song
Encyclopedia
Mario Lanza Sings Songs from The Student Prince and The Desert Song is a 1989 BMG
CD by Mario Lanza
.
This CD features most of the songs recorded by Mario Lanza for the 1954 MGM film The Student Prince
. These include several that would become closely identified with the tenor: "Serenade," "Drink! Drink! Drink!," "Beloved," and "I'll Walk With God." The last two selections are not by Sigmund Romberg
, the original composer of The Student Prince, but were written especially for the film version by Nicholas Brodszky and Paul Francis Webster
. Generally regarded as being among Lanza's finest renditions of English-language songs, The Student Prince was recorded in 1952, with one remake (Beloved) in May of 1953. For contractual reasons, the singing of soprano Ann Blyth (who originally sang with Lanza on two of the numbers) has been replaced by that of Elizabeth Doubleday on this disc.
The second half of the CD consists of highlights from another Romberg operetta
, The Desert Song
. Recorded in Rome in August 1959 at a time when Lanza was recovering from a bout of double pneumonia
, these are the tenor's final recordings. He died six weeks later. Lanza is accompanied here on several selections by soprano Judith Raskin
, who recorded her contributions in New York a year after the tenor's death.
BMG
Bertelsmann Music Group, , was a division of Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Japan's Sony Corporation of America on October 1, 2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music label activities of Bertelsmann...
CD by Mario Lanza
Mario Lanza
right|thumb|[[MGM]] still, circa 1949Mario Lanza was an American tenor and Hollywood movie star of the late 1940s and the 1950s. The son of Italian emigrants, he began studying to be a professional singer at the age of 16....
.
This CD features most of the songs recorded by Mario Lanza for the 1954 MGM film The Student Prince
The Student Prince
The Student Prince is an operetta in four acts with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly. It is based on Wilhelm Meyer-Förster's play Alt Heidelberg. The piece has elements of melodrama but lacks the swashbuckling style common to Romberg's other works...
. These include several that would become closely identified with the tenor: "Serenade," "Drink! Drink! Drink!," "Beloved," and "I'll Walk With God." The last two selections are not by Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg was a Hungarian-born American composer, best known for his operettas.-Biography:Romberg was born as Siegmund Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Gross-Kanizsa during the Austro-Hungarian kaiserlich und königlich monarchy period...
, the original composer of The Student Prince, but were written especially for the film version by Nicholas Brodszky and Paul Francis Webster
Paul Francis Webster
Paul Francis Webster was an American lyricist who won three Academy Awards for Best Song and was nominated sixteen times for the award.-Biography:...
. Generally regarded as being among Lanza's finest renditions of English-language songs, The Student Prince was recorded in 1952, with one remake (Beloved) in May of 1953. For contractual reasons, the singing of soprano Ann Blyth (who originally sang with Lanza on two of the numbers) has been replaced by that of Elizabeth Doubleday on this disc.
The second half of the CD consists of highlights from another Romberg operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
, The Desert Song
The Desert Song
The Desert Song is an operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel. It was inspired by the 1925 uprising of the Riffs, a group of Moroccan fighters, against French colonial rule. It was also inspired by stories of Lawrence of...
. Recorded in Rome in August 1959 at a time when Lanza was recovering from a bout of double pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
, these are the tenor's final recordings. He died six weeks later. Lanza is accompanied here on several selections by soprano Judith Raskin
Judith Raskin
Judith Raskin was an American lyric soprano, renowned for her fine voice as well as her acting.Raskin was born in New York to Harry A. Raskin, a high school music teacher, and Lillian Raskin, a grade school teacher. Her father aroused her childhood interest in music, leading her to study violin...
, who recorded her contributions in New York a year after the tenor's death.