Mario Lanza was born in Philadelphia, PA, in 1921 to Italian immigrant parents.  His parents exposed him to Operatic and Classical music throughout his younger life.  While still a teenager, Mario Lanza began performing in Opera productions in his hometown.

During World War II, Mario Lanza was assigned to Special Services, the entertainment branch of the US Army.  By the time World War II was over, Mario Lanza was touring the country constantly.  In 1947 he came to the attention of Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM.  He convinced Mario to sign a film contract and in 1950 Mario Lanza started appearing on the big screen.

Combined with good looks and the best tenor voice around, Mario Lanza became more of a movie star than an Opera singer.  He was very popular in films and that exposed his voice to a lot of people that would otherwise never have heard of him.  He continued to tour the country singing and his albums sales were very strong.

Unfortunately, due to a health condition, Mario Lanza died of a pulmonary embolism in 1959.  He was only 38 and at the height of his career.

Most people equate Mario Lanza to an Opera singer, while in reality, he was as much a Pop singer as he was Opera.  When you first hear his voice, you will immediately think “Opera”.  About half of his albums featured Opera while the other half were Pop Standards.

Mario Lanza released 2 Christmas albums during his brief career.  The first, released in 1951, was a 4-disc 78 rpm set that contained 8 songs.  In 1956, he expanded on that and released another Christmas album as a 12” LP.  The second album contained all the songs from the first 78 set and another 7 newly recorded Christmas songs for a total of 15 songs.  This CD contains only 10 of those 15 songs.

This compilation CD of Christmas songs was released by BMG Special Products in 2002.  The cover features a black and white close-up photo of Mario Lanza superimposed over a frost covered holly tree.  His name and the CD title appear at the top of the artwork.

The back of the CD features a small photograph of Mario Lanza in a white tie and black tails performing.  This is laid over an image of the same frost-covered holly branch as seen on the front cover.  To the right of the picture is a numerical track listing with writer credits below the song titles.

It is not necessary to remove the front cover to obtain any other information.  It is a double-sided piece of heavy paper printed on both sides.  The back of the front cover features a close-up of Mario Lanza, the same as the photo on the back of the CD.  The right side contains the same numerical track listing as shown on the back of the CD also.

Because the back of the cover is basically the same as the back of the CD, there is not a lot of information included in the liner notes.  It would have been nice to have original release years.

All songs featured are traditional Christmas carols and none of the songs are any of the secular Christmas songs from the 20^th century that most of us are familiar with.

The CD begins with The First Noel from 1951 and taken from Mario Lanza’s first Christmas set.  Although his voice is not like the other Pop singers of the time, he does a pretty good job with this song.  The orchestration is provided by Ray Sinatra (no relation to Frank) and Mario is accompanied by the Jeff Alexander Chorus.

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, It Came Upon A Midnight Clear, Deck The Halls and O Christmas Tree, the 2^nd – 5^th songs are all from Mario Lanza’s second album, Lanza Sings Christmas Carols from 1956.  Henri Rene & his Orchestra provide the music.  Mario Lanza is joined by the Jeff Alexander Chorus on track numbers 2 and 4.  Henri Rene does a fantastic job with the orchestra.  The soaring strings float behind Mario Lanza’s booming voice just beautifully.

The sixth song is my favorite on this CD.  We Three Kings Of Orient Are has Mario Lanza singing this Christmas carol with a strong voice while Ray Sinatra’s Orchestra provides excellent instrumentation.  To me, the highlights of the song are Thurl Ravenscroft’s introductions to the next verse.  He has such a unique and powerful voice.  It gives the song another facet of conviction.  (I believe it to be Thurl Ravenscroft, but for the life of me, I can’t find any information to verify this.  The voice is unmistakable, and Thurl did many uncredited vocal appearances, but I could be wrong).

The eighth song, Silent Night, is one of the better songs included.  The orchestra is light, and the Jeff Alexander Chorus provides a wonderful accompaniment to Mario Lanza’s vocals.  He seems to hold back on the power of voice more here than on the others.  That is probably due to the song itself.  Silent Night should be treated with softer voices than other traditional carols such as Joy To The World or We Three Kings Of Orient Are.

Another terrific song on here is the last song.  It is also one of the first Christmas songs Mario Lanza recorded.  O Holy Night is sung with power and conviction.  Like it or not, Mario Lanza does a really good job with this.  It is from 1950, and features Constantine Callinicos & his Orchestra.  An uncredited chorus delivers the middle refrain wonderfully.

For me, this CD is hard to listen to by itself.  I guess I don’t like Mario Lanza’s voice as much as Bing Crosby’s, Frank Sinatra’s or Perry Como’s.  I’m not a big fan of Opera, or Light Classics, and that is the style in how Mario Lanza sings.  It’s not whether he can sing or not, he can.  He viewed himself as an Opera singer, but he was required to sing in the Pop style in many of the films he starred in.

When he wasn’t in the movies, he did concert tours all over the world and most of the time he sang Opera and Light Classics.  This Christmas CD reflects that.  If that sounds great to you, then you will like this CD very much.  But I don’t think it will appeal to most casual listeners.  If you’re like me, you will take this in small doses.  Mario Lanza produced 15 Christmas songs and lots of Pop albums, but his classically trained voice is best suited for arias.

I give This CD :

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