Mario Lanza: Tenor in Exile

by Roland L. Bessette

Book Overview

More than 40 years after his premature death, the mystique of Mario Lanza continues. He remains a legendary figure, a crossover icon embraced and remembered by an entire generation for bridging the gap between popular and classical music, the acknowledged inspiration of today's Three Tenors. Bessette tells his story with a novelist's eye for the inherent tragedy of Lanza's brief life, the contradictory facets of his personality, his passion for life,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1574670441
• ISBN13: 9781574670448
• Release Date: March 2003
• Publisher: Globe Pequot Publishing Group Inc/Bloomsbury
• Length: 308 Pages
• Weight: 1.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

The Truth About Mario--Sympathetically Portrayed

I enjoyed this book very much. I thought it was well-researched and well-written. To me it seemed that Bessette was a big fan who loved Mario and his music, and wanted to find out the true story behind the myth and secrecy which has always surrounded this great tenor. Since I grew up listeneing to such beautiful songs as "Be My Love" and "The Loveliest Night of the Year" (my sister was a particularly devoted fan), I found it interesting to see what really went on behind the scenes. Yes, Mario was a man of huge appetites and outrageous behavior, often out of his control, but I appreciated Bessette's sympathetic view--that had he lived today, a much more enlightened era about mental illness and drug addition--he most likely would have received the help he needed.

Great biography of Lanza.

Lanza led a difficult life. This book does not hide from that. It tells you the highs and lows of his life. It is a great read. Well researched.

A ripping good read.

Authorative, well-written and nicely packaged, it is a book for Lanza and non-Lanza fans to enjoy.

Riveting: a great read even if you do not like Lanza.

I could not put this book down. It is smoothly written, well researched and brilliant in its perspective. A great telling of an interesting but uneven life.

a fine telling of a brief,self-destructive life

Through his films and records Mario Lanza did more to advance opera than all the hype of "The Three" combined. Yet Lanza wasn't an opera singer because his career was singing arias and duets from operas. He lacked the ability to study and work at learning roles. This well-written book is the story of a tenor with an undeniably beautiful voice who threw it away because of a fatally flawed personality. There have been other biographies about Lanza but this one is far and away the finest. Bessette's research explores - and explodes - myths that have settled around the tenor's fame in a highly readable style that moves like a fast- paced novel. Whether you love or loathe Lanza (or somewhere in between like myself) , the book is highly recommendable.