Search - Mario Lanza :: Christmas with Mario Lanza

Christmas as It Used to Be--and Still Can Be

senk | 10/30/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Mario Lanza's wonderfully soaring, searing voice was made for songs like the great traditional carols he performs on this album. He brings back countless memories of the glorious childhood Christmases so many of us had in the 1950s and 1960s--when Christmas, like life in America generally, was still full of optimism, promise, and hope, when tomorrow could still be better than today.



Lanza's album brings back Spielbergesque childhood memories of elaborate and moving midnight Masses or other Christmas services for which our parents indeed would let us stay up so we could see tiny children bring a life-size figure of baby Jesus up the center aisle and into the manger; fine buffets turned by our grandparents into Christmas wonderlands with cotton batting, tiny houses, ponds made from mirrors, faded and chipped but still-exquisite Nativity sets, and what seemed like millions of tiny multicolored lights; of traditional trees bedecked with Shiny Brite ornaments--whisk- or feather-tailed birds, Santas emerging from chimneys or spheres, tiny bells, fruit, and more, or of aluminum trees and revolving color wheels; of trying to go to sleep amid our childhood excitement over the next day's presents, and awakening with even more when we would open them; of going to our grandparents' homes for even more presents and a rich, filling dinner; and of going to sleep somewhat sad at how all that magic lasted only such a short time and was over so fast. (The blues over having to go back to school wouldn't start until after New Year's Day!)



My first memory of Lanza was when I first heard his rendition of _The Drinking Song_ from _The Student Prince_ on December 31, 1967 (the day of the famous Green Bay Packers-Dallas Cowboys "Ice Bowl"), as my parents got ready to celebrate with friends later that day. Even as a child, I was spellbound by That Voice. No one could hold a note like Lanza!



Not until my mid-30s, however, did I hear his Christmas songs, starting with his incomparable 1951 rendition of _Silent Night_, with his and the orchestra's and chorus's lush, perfect evocation of the meaning of the melody and lyrics, evocative of that hope-filled, long-gone postwar era, yet timeless and new as tomorrow.



Even though I had ceased being a traditional Catholic or Christian long ago, I was moved to tears when I heard Lanza's _Silent Night_ over my car radio on the early evening of Christmas Day 1992 as I drove into a relative's neighborhood and looked out over a snow-quilted subdivision dotted with what seemed hundreds of happy houses, chimneys smoking with warmth and lit up with thousands of decorative lights outside and with warmth and love inside.



Truly "heavenly peace," I thought, on that wonderful, love-filled modern-day silent night celebrating the one nearly 2,000 years before. For me, Mario Lanza framed and made this memorable moment forever.



Lanza's tenor is perfect for each song, be it the overwhelming _O Holy Night_ or the gentle _The Virgin's Slumber Song_ and _Guardian Angels_ (with harp accompaniment and music written by Harpo Marx--don't laugh; he was as gifted at the harp as Lanza was as a singer!). When Lanza sings _Adeste Fideles_--in both Latin and English--and urges the angels to "sing with exaltations," he, too, is doing exactly that. You no doubt will want to join him, at least in your heart.



Many of us remember how Lanza's incomparable voice once heralded the season as much as those of Nat "King" Cole or the Carpenters do today. Like Cole and Karen Carpenter, Lanza left us far too young. One all but cries at what each of them could have accomplished had they lived longer, but one rejoices at how they shared their gifts with us all in their short lives.



Thanks to this wonderful CD, we can now enjoy Lanza and his Christmas gifts again, year after year--and share them with others. Get it--you won't regret it."

One of the Greatest!

James Appello | Florida | 01/19/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have listened to Mario Lanza since childhood. My mother is a huge fan, also from Philadelphia. This CD (also have in vinyl and 8track(!)) is one of the greatest showcases of his talent. Oh Holy Night is the BEST version of this song. You must add to your collection!"