Edited by author 07-05-2008 10:28 AM
Hello all,

At about 9:00am today I spoke with Gabi's son, Paul who is presently at Gabi and Dirk's house.
Very basically Paul advised his mother is doing very well. He stated at the time she was stricken, her and Dirk were at a friends house,and therefore the sudden onset of symptoms were quickly noticed;and the ambulance was on scene and transported Gabi to hospital very soon,from the onset.
She is doing very well, and her speech is normal,and there does not appear to be any noticeable physical deficits.

I am not sure when she will be discharged,but this news today is certainly on a positive note.

I passed on to Paul, the wishes from all of us here, at this forum, for a speedy and healthy recovery.

Cheers Gary

Edited by author 07-04-2008 06:46 PM
There is an ironic, cruel coincidence there, that the recording of a song with that title should literally lack its centre. Here was a very talented and obviously sensitive man who had so much to live for and was the centre of much seemingly positive attention, and yet who, according to some biographers, had long been convinced that he must die at an early age. Perhaps Lanza's life was to a large extent shortened, not by any opposition or lack of opportunity, but by the sheer burden of the great expectations placed upon him and the consequent stress caused to him, emotionally and finally physically.

Sam, I think that is correct because the engineer notes indicate that all the tapes found for the these recordings were in three channel except "Love Me Tonight" which they found only in two channel. Hence, when that song is played no sound comes from the center.

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Martino, even a timid pacifist, such as I am, can be moved by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's rousing performance of the Battle Hymn. I remember that Jeanette Macdonald also sang this splendid piece rather well, in her case in a relatively old recording.

I got the answer to my question - I visited the website: www.these3tenors.com - Most interesting. They were new to me, altho they have been around for 10 years. They have 3 CD's, plus each has a solo CD. Total 6 CD's, at $15 each. I may order them, in the near future. The samples I heard were very impressive. Ciao.

Thanks for that clip. Very appropriate this time of year and sung and played as good as it can be by this tremendous group. Anyone uninspired after hearing this has ice in their veins.

We wish you gute Besserung.

                        David

The Mario Lanza Museum will be closed for the 4th of July holiday and will reopen on Monday July 7th. Best, Bill

Mike Antonelli: Who are "These Three Tenors"?? I suppose, a spin-off of "The Three Tenors" (Pav, Domingo & Carreras). What are their names?? Curious. Ciao.

Get well soon Gabi,...carl

Martino: It is my understanding that Love Me Tonight is not in the SACD format because they could not find the original tape for it. Your review is excellent and I agree with everything you said.

Thanks for your post. I fully agree with your comments. Once you have tasted the best the rest are just not as good. many great tenors of the past that in undeniable. Superb technically and are legends in their own right. Mario is the top of my tree in this respect. The dilemma i have is that is has made me more critical of other tenors. Trying to compare them against Mario is in reality just futile. When i hear a tenor for the first time i immediately think " Oh not as good as Mario". Really unfair attitude of mine as Mario was a one off. I really ought to be more balanced.

As you requested I will review the 2/06 release of the SACD disk "Mario! Lanza At His Best" and I guess it will take some time just to hit the highlights. As we all know this disk contains selections from the Italian song sessions recorded in 1958 and the Vagabond King recorded in 1959. The Italian songs represent one of Lanza's best recordings, vocally and sonically. The Vagabond King has some merit (especially the beautiful rendition of "Nocturne") but for the most part his singing is strained. For example, the "Someday" is but a shadow of his previous versions. That he was in ill health explains the overall lackluster performance. The SACD disk touts several never before released musical selections from the Vagabond King but Lanza sings in them only about a minute or so and I do not consider these additions to be significant.

We spoke earlier of how we listen to music. Some listen critically, some for shear pleasure, some listen only to compare with other performers, etc. I won't get into the Lanza singing per se as I was listening only to compare the new format with the old. I even did A/B tests going from one song to another in the different formats.

At first play I was impressed with the wide stereo image of the SACD (which is a "high definition" like Super Audio CD format). When the album was first recorded in "Living Stereo" they meant it! SACD, being multi-channel, specific sounds came from predetermined places yet the sound stage was huge. I was expecting to hear sounds from all my speakers but sound came from only the left/right front and center. The orchestra and chorus with parts of Lanza's voice are located L/R but the primary vocal sound was dead center - right in the center speaker. If you play this in true SACD (not hybrid mode which can be played in stereo, thereby disabling the center), be sure to have a good, full band center speaker.

SACD centralized Mario's voice quite a bit (not necessarily a bad thing, especially for a solo performance) but it added undue emphasis to the chorus jumping around left and right. This made me notice it more than I should and I concluded, for the first time, that the chorus involvement on this disk is both silly and unnecessary. It adds nothing when heard to this kind of predominance on SACD. The reason I was not surrounded in music, which is a big factor for multi-channel musical reproduction, was that the albums were recorded in three channel sound (except for "Love Me Tonight" which was, for some reason, only in two channel - according to the engineer's notes). Although the sound stage was specific yet broad in SACD, I really prefer the true stereo effect of the original disk where no center channel is used to localize the singing voice (unless you switch to a DSP mode in your amp to utilize something like "Full Stereo" where every speaker you have will be enabled). With multi-channel sources you can't switch to anything other than multi-channel. The only way in SACD to do away with this localization is to remove the center channel entirely and then you would not hear most of the voice itself. In this regard I am probably in the minority and everyone has a different preference as to the "placement" of sounds and how they should move. Modern disks, recorded in DSD from the start and with multiple musical characteristics (such as full opera and symphony) shine in this format but not so much for a lone singer in recital, IMO.

The SACD was clear as a bell even though it was remastered at a much lower db level than the original but even at this level it was bright. The original was made like a Franco Corelli, the SACD was made like Tito Schipa - one louder than the other in volume but, as Schipa shows, clarity is not necessarily a matter of volume. The engineers did a great job in the remaster and it would be for that reason alone that I would recommend the disk. No pops, no hisses, no nothing - just music - overall, the best one can ever hope to hear the Lanza voice. What Derek said at his forum is true - the forward placement of the voice found in the regular cd is now more in line with the orchestra. But I prefer the forward placement. The only bad thing about it in the original cd was that this created a "boom" when Lanza sang an exclamation or high note; it blew you out of your chair. What a problem it must have been for engineers to try to record such a powerful, rich voice! The engineers with the SACD fixed that leaving the brilliance in but making the sound seamless and natural with no excesses anywhere.

One thing they did not fix was the very slight "church" effect. The original had this sound, more pronounced on some selections (such as Santa Lucia Luntana"), than others. On the Vagabond King, all selections have this chamber sound to it. That's okay but the SACD does not minimize it but augments it. Whereas Lanza seemed to be singing in a small chapel he sounds like now he is in the main church. Well, not that bad (like Serenade) but I think SACD gives you 100% of what was on the original tape, good and bad. There is also a wonderful "airy" feeling; a certain presence that seems to say there is no top or bottom; a freedom of sound if you will. How much of this was due to my speaker tweeters and how much was due to the recording I'm not sure but I do not get as much of this sensation with the original cd. This "openness" is mostly a good thing but then again, the squeaky voice of Judith Raskin sounds more squeaky than ever. Why they never got Lanza to record with the great American sopranos of his time such as Moffo and Peters is beyond me. It is also more obvious than ever in SACD that Raskin recorded her parts away from where Lanza recorded his. Even if I did not know this, I would have sensed something was wrong. Well, I digress.

Did I receive a huge, sonic revelation with this SACD disk? No. Did I discover something astonishing with it? No. Was it an improvement over the original? Yes and No. Would I recommend someone buy this disk to play on a regular machine just for the remaster work? Yes. Now for the bottom line of this review - would I recommend someone rush out to buy a special player just to play this disk in SACD? No.

As a token to Gabi i am sure she will accept this as a prayer of recovery sung by her favourite tenor. Mario singing "The Lords prayer".

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