Apparently today is the 100th birthday of “that great Irish tenor, Mari O’Lanza,” so I want to share a few favorite clips.
“Be My Love” was my musical obsession about ten or 15 years ago. It doesn’t hurt that my beloved Kathryn Grayson is the soprano.
Somehow I remember seeing The Great Caruso on television at home, and Daddy just laughing and laughing at this scene of Caruso’s reaction to the birth of his first child during the famous Sextette of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. Because it is, it is, it is HILAROUS to see and hear him singing “I-I-I-I-I-I-I-T’S A-A-A-A-A-A GIRL!”
“Because You’re Mine” from the movie of the same name, was also a musical obsession for awhile. (Thank you, the Yewytybbe! When you bring me stuff like this, you’re doing your job!) Even more poignant, his partner here is Doretta Morrow, the actress who created the role of Tuptim* in The King and I. Her unique voice — there are very few singers who don’t sound like they could be someone else, and Doretta Morrow is one of them — was taken from us too soon by cancer. The movie itself . . . don’t bother.
*”Something young, soft and slim//Painted cheek, tapering limb//smiling lips, all for him//eyes that shine just for him//So he thinks, just for him.” I’m weeping.