PAUL ANKA

One of my Facebook friends — and a former newspaper colleague — remarked today that she likes to start sentences with “and” and “but,” an indulgence we share. In fact, I make a point of telling my students that while they shouldn’t use a coordinating conjunction to begin a sentence while they are in the stifling atmosphere of academia, they should have at it once they’re writing on their own.

This got me to thinking about song lyrics that begin with “and,” only because four popped into my head immediately.

The first was “My Way,” which begins: “And now the end is near, and I must face the final curtain.” Paul Anka wrote that lyric, and according to him, it was inspired by Frank Sinatra’s announcement that he was going to quit show business.

FRANK SINATRA

The melody was written by Claude Francois and Jacques Revaux for a French song. “Comme d’habitude,” which means something like “As is my habit.” Anka’s lyrics, I understand, have no relationship to the originals but were meant to go along with Sinatra’s mood at the time.

There have been notable covers of the song by Elvis Presley, Sid Vicious, and Dorothy Squires.

Another lyric in this category was written by Johnny Mercer for a popular version of “The Song of the Indian Guest” from the opera “Sadko” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. I mentioned this here recently in connection with Mercer’s centennial. Mercer’s version is known as “Song of India,” and it begins: “And still the snowy Himalayas rise in ancient majesty before our eyes ….”

MARIO LANZA

Mario Lanza made a fine recording of that song, and Lanza also made a wonderful recording of “They’ll Never Believe Me,” which was written by Herbert Reynolds and Jerome Kern to help rescue an imported British musical, “The Girl From Utah,” in 1914. The refrain, which usually begins the song, starts: “And when I tell them how beautiful you are, they’ll never believe me ….”

The last song that occurred to me was “And I love her so,” which was written by Don McLean but is most widely associated with Perry Como.

And like that.

Capitol Records

Yesterday was the centennial of Johnny Mercer, and I was too busy to take much notice of it. But it was on my mind, because Mercer is one of my favorite lyricists. I wrote here a couple of months ago about one of his lesser-known songs, “The Waiter, the Porter and the Upstairs Maid,” which is sophisticated and funny.

But Mercer was a poet. When his songs get stuck in my head, I don’t mind. It’s hard for me to talk about favorites, because I’m crazy about so many of his songs — such as “The Angels Sing,” which he wrote in 1939:

We meet, and the angels sing.
The angels sing the sweetest song I ever heard.
You speak, and the angels sing.
Or am I breathing music into every word?
Suddenly, the setting is strange.
I can see water and Moonlight beaming.
Silver waves that break on some undiscovered shore
Suddenly, I see it all change.
Long winter nights with the candles gleaming.
Through it all your face that I adore.
You smile, and the angels sing.
And though it’s just a gentle murmur at the start.
We kiss, and the angels sing.
And leave their music ringing in my heart.

JOHNNY MERCER

I first heard that lyric when I was in my teens, and I was fascinated by the quality of Mercer’s writing.

I’m especially fond of the lyric he wrote to a classic melody, “Song of India.” I have an old RCA Victor Red Seal recording of that sung by Mario Lanza. It’s one of those cases in which I’d rather not hear anyone else sing it, so I hope the vinyl lasts as long as I do — which is becoming less of a challenge every day.

And still the snowy Himalayas rise / In ancient majesty before our eyes / Beyond the plains, above the pines / While through the ever, never changing land / As silently as any native band / That moves at night, the Ganges Shines  / Then I hear the song that only India can sing / Softer than the plumage on a black raven’s wing / High upon a minaret I stand and gazed upon an old enchanted land/ There’s the Maharajah’s caravan, Unfolding like a painted fan / How small the little race of Man! / See them all parade across the ages / Armies, Kings and slaves from hist’ry’s pages / Played on one of nature’s vastest stages. / The turbaned Sikhs and fakirs line the streets /  While holy men in shadowed calm retreats / Pray through the night and watch the stars. / A lonely plane flies off to meet the dawn / While down below the busy life goes on / And women crowd the old bazaars. /All are in the song that only India can sing. / India, the jewel of the East.

There’s lots about Johnny Mercer at this link and at this one.

MASSA DI SOMMA – Quello appena passato è stato un fine settimana molto importante per il Pd massese che si è riunito per discutere e per votare le tre mozioni congressuali che dovrebbero condurre all’elezione del segretario nazionale e del segretario regionale. Se la partecipazione al voto è stata soddisfacente e il dibattito congressuale non è stato motivo di polemica, ciò che ha fatto emergere non poche critiche è stata l’assenza dei due vertici amministrativi: il sindaco Antonio Zeno e il suo vice Rosanna Olimpo, entrambi del Pd. Se il vice sindaco non ha potuto partecipare alla fase congressuale poiché non ha rinnovato la sua tessera al partito, diverso è il caso del sindaco che ha così commentato la sua scelta: «A Massa di Somma non esiste ancora il Pd. Dal gruppo dirigente ancora una volta non è arrivato uno stimolo ad attivarsi. E se proprio vogliamo dirla tutta secondo i termini del regolamento la fase congressuale potrebbe anche essere invalidata poiché non è stato formalizzato agli iscritti un invito alla partecipazione al congresso, come richiesto dallo statuto». A Zeno ha replicato Mario Lanza ultimo segretario Ds massese nonché eletto come delegato per la mozione Bersani. «Il Pd cittadino – ha dichiarato Lanza – è in salute e ciò è testimoniato dalla buona partecipazione dei tesserati. Purtroppo si evidenzia l’assenza del sindaco e il mancato rinnovo del tessera del vice sindaco che per questo motivo non ha potuto partecipare alla fase congressuale». Anche il consigliere comunale Raffaele Savarese, esponente locale dell’area Franceschini è intervenuto sulla vicenda: «L’assenza dei vertici istituzionali è inspiegabile in un momento così delicato per il partito. Mi auguro che almeno per le primarie di ottobre, un evento importante del nostro partito, gli amministratori del Pd si attivino per mobilitare l’elettorato». In casa del Pdl intanto cresce la polemica interna al partito. Da un lato i due consiglieri provenienti da An Ciro Boccarusso e Antonio Battaglia e dall’altro Matteo Ciano da qualche mese entrato nel gruppo del Pdl dopo l’esperienza nella giunta del sindaco del Pd Antonio Zeno. Causa della polemica: il dissociarsi di Ciano da un manifesto in cui il gruppo consiliare del Pdl attaccava aspramente l’operato della maggioranza. Dopo la polemica è arrivata la presa di posizione del gruppo consiliare del Pdl che ha deciso di allontanare il dissidente. Antonio Battaglia ha così argomentato tale scelta: «Atto dovuto a causa dei continui atteggiamenti del consigliere Ciano che prima in consiglio comunale sostiene la critica alla giunta Zeno e che poi rinnega se stesso quando viene fatto affiggere il manifesto che riporta proprio quella critica». Ciano non solo rimanda le accuse al mittente ma addirittura rilancia accusando i due consigliere ex An di non rappresentare il Pdl. «Il manifesto da cui ho preso le distanze era fatto solo di attacchi personali e non politici. Il Pdl ha bisogno di nuovi dirigenti e per questo motivo sicuramente sarò il prossimo candidato a sindaco per il Pdl e darò una lezione alla sinistra e a chi per diverse volte si è candidato come sindaco per il centro destra senza mai riuscirci». Riferimento quest’ultimo diretto a Ciro Boccarusso, candidato a sindaco nel 2006 per il centro destra che ha così replicato: «Ciano è la vergogna politica di questo paese. E’ una persona inaffidabile che dice di voler spazzare via la sinistra massese ma dimentica che è stato per diversi anni un suo esponente. Ciano – ha concluso Boccarusso – è stato prima nel Pci poi in Forza italia, è passato prima nei Ds e poi nei Verdi per finire oggi nel Pdl».
Salvatore Esposito

Cover of Changing Tunes; image courtesy of musicweb-international.com

Since a lot of folks (including many friends) are back in school, I thought I’d do another book report. Tonight, I’ll jot down my notes on Changing Tunes: The Use of Pre-existing Music in Film. Just as my friend Kit pointed me in the direction of this useful, diverse anthology, I thought I’d do the same, especially for any other burgeoning feminist soundtrack/score enthusiasts there may be. Term paper deadlines will come closer than you think.

As Robynn Stilwell was one of the co-editors of the collection who penned the particular essay Kit recommended to me, what better place to start? After all, her piece is called ”Vinyl Communion: The Record as Ritual Object in Girls’ Rites-of-Passage Films.” Here, Stilwell looks at four movies featuring girl protagonists and preoccupied with such themes, two of which I’ve yet to see (Little Voice and Heavenly Creatures) and two of which are all-time favorites (Ghost World and The Virgin Suicides). As Stilwell’s reading of Little Voice aligns with Pamela Robertson’s, I will refer you to a previous entry where Robertson’s essay is discussed. And while I would’ve liked more development of each text (hell, I could read a whole book on each of these movies) and would have appreciated some movies that consider the mediated representations of vinyl practices from girls of color, I still found Stilwell’s insights valueable. And obviously, I’m going to need to watch all these movies.

To Stilwell, Ghost World’s Enid believes that vinyl, and its technological apparatus, has no instrinsic value as an object. In one scene, she pretends to break her record collector friend Seymour’s vintage LP. She also has no interest in creating an authentic listening experience, playing old vinyl releases on a  33 1/3 record player that were meant to be played on a 78. Instead, Enid turns to record-playing for its transportive and transformative qualities. She wants a form of escape from her suburban SoCal surroundings, trying on punk, retro, and gothic fashions and turning to Bollywood, Indian rock music, and blues singer Skip James’s hauntingly androgynous tenor in “Devil Got My Woman.”

With Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures, itself based on the Pauline Parker-Juliet Hulme murder, the schoolgirls’ fandom for tenor Mario Lanza serves as a buffer for true homosexual feelings, a development that Stilwell explains by using late theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s notion of the homosocial triangle.

Thus, in order to own those feelings, Pauline and Juliet must disavow themselves from Lanza, burning their records to aver these feelings in the process.

Record burning is considered in a much different context in Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, instead constructed as authoritative punishment rather than a declaration of one’s identity. The Lisbon girls, a mysterious and cloistered quintet, consider records to be a form of communication between one another and to the neighbor boys with whom they’ve been forbidden to interact with by their parents. Songs like Heart’s “Magic Man” and “Crazy on You” speak on their behalf, conveying the lust and sexual agency that girls feel and Lux Lisbon acts upon for high school heartthrob Trip Fontaine. Thus, mother Lisbon’s command that Lux burn her rock records after Trip Fontaine sleeps with and abandons her on the football field after the Homecoming game suggests a tragic loss of voice, demanding that she align with soft rock male singer-songwriters like Gilbert O’Sullivan and Todd Rundgren instead of continuing to listen to libidinous cock rock bands like Aerosmith.

With Vanessa Knights ‘ “Queer Pleasures: The Bolero, Camp, and Almodóvar,” we have a consideration of how Pedro Almodóvar asserted a queer identity in his earlier films, utilizing the campy potential of bolero, as well as acknowledging the contributions bolero singers like La Lupe have given to queer fan culture, particularly among gay men.

While Almodóvar may have more often utilized Cuban musicians’ contributions to movies made within a strictly Spanish context, Phil Powrie’s “The Fabulous Destiny of the Accordion in French Cinema” considers the accordian, originally an Italian musical instrument, as a French national symbol. He considers the accordian’s heroic period between 1930 and 1960 and how the instrument was used as an audiovisual marker of utopian community in movies like René Clair’s Sous les toits de Paris. While Powrie does not make it clear, I hazard to guess that there may be some connection, however tenuous, between this period and the chanteuse réaliste movies Kelley Conway has discussed elsewhere.

By 1949, Powrie notes that movies like Jacques Tati’s Jour de Fête were commenting on the decline of the accordian’s ubiquity in French culture as the country shifted from a working-class country with a strong sense of history to a modern society with tremendous interest in other cultures and a particular interest in American life. This is a point Powrie argues that Tati makes aurally, as Jo Lefevre’s accordian opens and closes a film about a character who tries to emulate American customs, cued through the film’s use of swing music.

The move away from the accordian’s aural connotation of national identity is evident in 80s French cinema. The accordian instead becomes a visual, unheard marker of community demise in movies like Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Diva. From the 1990s on, the accordian has become a post-modern instrument for French cinema to Powrie, suggesting both a utopian ideal and evident of self-aware nostalgia, most evident in Yann Tiersen’s score for Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie.

And finally, we have Ronald Rodman’s “The Popular Song as Leitmotif in 1990s Film,” which considers how the use of theme music written for specific characters in classical music and film can be translated into contemporary film’s use of popular music and how leitmotif is used as a connotative signifier. This seems like a tremendously useful exercise that I’ll make sure to remember when I get to be a boss professor lady.

Rodman considers Pulp Fiction and Trainspotting, two successful movies made noteworthy, in part, because of their exclusive use of popular music. With Pulp Fiction, protagonist hit man Vince Vega becomes associated with surf rock and Elvis as a means of connoting his class and white ethnic cultural positioning as an Italian American with a working-class background. In Trainspotting, Scottish heroin addict Mark Renton is associated with art-damaged, anti-establishment classic rockers like Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, and David Bowie, before getting clean and making his classed ascent into the bourgeoisie, which is highlighted by his musical association with Brit pop and popular techno.
  

While I appreciate Rodman’s argument for Trainspotting, I do wonder what he’d make of the wave of regional pictures in the UK during the 1990s and early 2000s. Just as Trainspotting focuses on Edinburgh, so to did 24-Hour Party People depicted Manchester’s singularity. That said, I do value Rodman’s effort to reconsider how popular music functions similarly to classical music in movies, and look forward to reading more on the interplay from similarly-invested scholars. Please feed me titles if you’re so inclined.

I don’t know about you, but in my world comparing these two is like comparing heaven and hell. But hey, you decide for yourself. By all means…

Paul Potts – Ave Maria

Mario Lanza – Ave Maria

AND

Paul Potts – E Lucevan Le Stelle

Mario Lanza – E Lucevan Le Stelle

I finally managed to get hold of a Japanese(!) import DVD of “The Great Caruso” starring Mario Lanza and Ann Blyth, amongst others. The story doesn’t really follow that of Enrico Caruso’s life, but is loosely based on it. But you know what? It doesn’t matter one bit.

The storyline isn’t the big deal here anyway, it’s the voice. Not that of Caruso, but that of Lanza. His voice has been called “the voice of the century” and “the Northern Lights in a throat”. Maria Callas (soprano) once stated, “My biggest regret is not to have had the opportunity of singing with the greatest tenor voice I’ve ever heard.”

Bit of trivia from IMDB: Enrico Caruso died in 1921. Lanza was born in 1921. Superstition prompts fans to believe that the newborn Mario inherited the voice of the expired Enrico. To support this myth, most critics during Lanza’s life espoused the belief that Lanza’s vocal range and quality were on a par with no other singer but Caruso.

Back to the movie.

It’s made in 1951 and it’s so interesting to see the difference in how they made movies then compared to now. In this movie, for instance, they have scenes of Lanza singing entire arias without the camera moving one inch. Just him standing there, singing. A bit of zoom in/zoom out, but that’s about it. In most shots it’s just a straight-on camera view, sometimes with a gawking female. Now you’d hear thirty seconds, tops, and see the performance from 17 different angles in that time.

One thing Lanza clearly doesn’t lack is passion. Whether it’s singing something humorous or extremely passionate, he just stuns. His performances of, for instance, “E Lucevan le Stelle” from Tosca, “Pagliacci” from Vesti la Giubba, “Che Galida Manina” from La Bohème and either version of “Ave Maria” is just something else. He has a sensational vibrato and an undeniable passion for everything he performs. He was, I guess, forced into doing some cheesy stuff for MGM, but when he does the proper arias, nobody compares. The movie captures the best of Lanza, as far as I’m concerned.

The only downside to hearing Lanza is that I can’t listen to any other opera singers again and enjoy it equally.

Mario Lanza – E Lucevan le Stelle – from Tosca

The emotion this guy can convey is just… phew.

***

Jan Werner & Elisabeth Andreassen – The Prayer

This is so world class. Not even people like Andrea Bocelli and whatever selected partner for the day can do this song as well coordinated as this pair. They duetted on and off for 12 years – from the very beginning of his career, until she did a duet with him at his own funeral, on “You Raise Me Up” (see below).

***

You Raise Me Up – Jan Werner’s funeral

Yeah. Emotional. The epiphany of professionalism, being able to sing at the funeral of someone very close to you.

***

Josh Groban – To Where You Are

Very special song, lyrics wise.

Are you gently sleeping
Here inside my dream
And isn’t faith believing
All power can’t be seen
As my heart holds you
Just one beat away
I cherish all you gave me everyday

filme da adolescencia

Lately I’ve been listening a lot to the following artists:

*** MARIO LANZA ***

I grew up listening to opera, especially Pavarotti and Gigli, but it wasn’t until I heard Mario Lanza that I thought, “OK, so this is heaven.” He did a movie called “The Great Caruso” about, well, duh, Caruso (really well regarded, classic opera singer for those not enlightened .) and although the movie doesn’t really follow Caruso’s life, Lanza’s vocals are fucking amazing. Pavarotti, Domingo, Carreras and Bocelli amongst others credit Lanza as an inspiration to them in pursuing their chosen careers.

“I sing from the heart… I sing the words of a song and really feel them, from the top of my head to the tip of my toes… I sing as though my life depends on it, and if I ever stop doing that then I’ll stop living”

Torna a Surriento

Clips from “The Great Caruso”

*** JAN WERNER ***

I wasn’t a fan of this artist until I’d seen him live. After that experience, seeing ordinary artists live almost feels like a bit of a joke. He sings better live than most artists sing in the studio with help. He took a considerable amount of crap for daring to be different – or so-called different. Brian May asked him to audition for Queen to join them on tour, and for a role in the musical “We Will Rock You”. He got the part but turned it down as he was otherwise engaged. You could argue that wasn’t the wisest of choices, but he was one to honour his commitments.

“People always talk about how fame changes you, they never mention how it changes the people around you.”

“Rise and shine my eternal day, don’t you cry on my grave cause my life is still to come when they row me to the other side…” (paraphrased)

Air (at the Nobel Peace Price)

Nella Fantasia

Various

ARTE – 22h35 – lundi 4/5

De sa fulgurante ascension à sa fin tourmentée, le destin de Mario Lanza, chanteur d’opéra devenu star hollywoodienne.

Mario Lanza est considéré comme le plus grand ténor américain de son temps. Découvert par le chef d’orchestre Serge Koussevitsky en 1942, il démarre sa carrière à Hollywood en 1944, avec Winged victory de George Cukor. Passant avec une facilité déconcertante de l’opéra italien à la comédie musicale, les enregistrements et les films auxquels il participe popularisent l’opéra auprès du grand public. En tournant dans The toast of New Orleans avec Kathryn Grayson, The great Caruso de Richard Thorpe avec Ann Blyth, ou encore Serenade d’Anthony Mann avec Sara Montiel, le ténor devient superstar.

Rediffusions :
10.05.2009 à 06:00
www.arte.tv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MmiKGzmZy8

Tenor se apresenta no Parque da Independência em São Paulo, no dia 21 de abril, feriado de Tiradentes, às 16h.

Andréa Bocelli

Em abril, os fãs de Andréa Bocelli terão a chance de ver o tenor de perto e de graça. O artista fará um show aberto e com entrada franca em São Paulo, baseados em seu último trabalho, “Incanto”, com a inclusão de algumas árias clássicas. Com patrocínio cultural do HSBC e da Redecard, a apresentação será realizada no feriado de dia 21 de abril, no Parque da Independência, às 16h em São Paulo, com realização da Dançar Marketing & Comunicações.

Acompanhado de coro e orquestra sob a regência do maestro Eugene Kohn, Bocelli escolheu um repertório centrado em seu novo trabalho. Primeiro CD de estúdio desde ‘Amore’, de 2006, ‘Incanto’ reúne canções italianas como ‘Un Amore Cosi Grande’, ‘Mamma’, ‘Voglio Vivere Cosi’, ‘Funiculi Funicula’, e ‘A Marechiare’, que marcaram o cantor desde sua infância nas vozes de grandes tenores como Enrico Caruso, Beniamino Gigli, Franco Corelli, Mario Lanza e Luciano Pavarotti.
 
 
Anota aí! 
Local: Parque da Independência
Av. Nazareth, s/n Ipiranga
Data: 21 de abril de 2009
Início do show: 16h
Entrada franca

Dançar Marketing & Comunicações.
 

There’s a plethora of single-disc Caruso collections, but this one’s the preferred choice for opera fans who treasure this golden- voiced epitome of Golden Age singing. It’s a Greatest Hits collection to beat all Greatest Hits collections. Selections span Caruso’s career, from the lyric effusions of 1906-7 to the darker-voiced later recordings, including one of his last records, the 1920 La Juive aria, “Rachel, quand du Seigneur,” which he invests with a heartbreaking poignancy that hasn’t been bettered. Caruso shines brightest in the Italian repertory, capturing the pathos of Vesti la Giubba, the insouciance of the Duke’s Rigoletto arias, and the hero’s dilemma in Celeste Aida, among much else. But everything here is wonderful–great music, great singing. –Dan Davis

The Legendary Enrico Caruso: 21 Favorite Arias is available at Amazon for $9.99. To Order click here
Amazon Product Pages contain a lot of other details on this product as Customer Reviews, Sales Ranking, Special Offers, Alternate products that customers are going for and much more.Want to read these details? click here

Want to get some other Format / Binding / Version? You can search for them from here

Other Products of Interest

• Italian Songs: The Digital Recordings
• Match Point
• The Very Best of Maria Callas
• Artists Of The Century – Caruso, The Greatest Tenor In The World
• Prima Voce – Caruso

Preface by Placido Domingo. Second Edition: audio CD remastered by Derek McGovern and Vince Di Placido, updated discography and index.

Mario Lanza: An American Tragedy (Great Voices 7) is available at Amazon for $35.10. To Order click here
Amazon Product Pages contain a lot of other details on this product as Customer Reviews, Sales Ranking, Special Offers, Alternate products that customers are going for and much more.Want to read these details? click here

Want to get some other Format / Binding / Version? You can search for them from here

Other Products of Interest

• Mario Lanza: Singing to the Gods (American Made Music)
• That Midnight Kiss / The Toast of New Orleans
• Mario Lanza
• American Caruso
• The Mario Lanza Collection (3CD)

If this video doesn’t SIMULTANEOUSLY ROUSE YOU AND SOOTHE YOU, YOU CAN GO TO HELL! Sorry. But shit – it’s Christmas.

MASSA DI SOMMA – Comunque vada sarà un successo, pardon un insuccesso. E l’insuccesso della nascita del Pd a Massa di Somma è testimoniato da alcune cifre: 2, le liste presentate e contrapposte nel comune vesuviano più piccolo; 132 i consensi della lista Nuovi valori (Savarese, Manzo, Battaglia, Olimpo e Noviello) e 118 i consensi alla lista Alternativa democratica (Lanza, Di Nicuolo, Sassi e Sacco). Ma la cifra più paradossale è il doppio 8 uscito dalle urne democratiche massesi, infatti dopo tanti rinvii e una guerra poco sottobanco che ha riproposto l’eterno scontro tra l’area Nicolais e l’area Cozzolino, che a Massa di Somma si esemplifica nella paleolitica disputa tra Raffaele Savarese e Mario Lanza, tutto è terminato per il momento con un clamoroso quanto kafkiano pareggio. Appunto 8 componenti del direttivo ad una lista e altrettanto 8 componenti del direttivo all’altra lista con l’impossibilità per ciascuna delle due liste di imporre un proprio coordinatore. Con questo paradossale esito non ci sono vincitori ma un unico grande sconfitto: il Pd a Massa di Somma, battezzato con una grave spaccatura in due parti, al momento e forse per il futuro, incapaci di costruire un dialogo.

L’Ora Vesuviana On Line

salvatore.esposito@edizionidelvesuvio.com