Serenade/A Cavalcade of Show Tunes

Infobox Album
Name = Serenade/A Cavalcade of Show Tunes
Type = compilation
Artist = Mario Lanza

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Released = 2004
Recorded =
Genre = Opera, show tunes
Length =
Label = BMG UK
Producer =
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Last album =
This album =
Next album = The Mario Lanza CD "Serenade/A Cavalcade of Show Tunes" is a BMG UK "twofer", released in 2004. Comprising the soundtrack album from the film "Serenade", and the LP "A Cavalcade of Show Tunes", the CD also includes a previously unreleased version of the song "Serenade" by Nicholas Brodszky and Sammy Cahn. An entirely different song from the one featured in the actual film of "Serenade", this recording is noteworthy for its difficult tessitura, including a number of high B naturals.

The soundtrack to "Serenade", recorded in 1955, contains some of tenor Mario Lanza's most acclaimed operatic performances. These include the Monologue (Dio! Mi Potevi Scagliar) from "Otello", Lamento di Federico from "L'Arlesiana", Di Rigori Armato from "Der Rosenkavalier", Amor Ti Vieta from "Fedora", and O Paradiso from "L'Africana". Lanza also sings Schubert's Ave Maria, Rossini's La Danza, and the Neapolitan song Torna a Surriento by Ernesto De Curtis. The conductor on the operatic arias was the Academy Award-winning Musical Director Ray Heindorf.

The CD concludes with the 1956 album "A Cavalcade of Show Tunes", arranged and conducted by Henri Rene. Among this collection of 12 musical comedy and operetta standards, Lanza sings Franz Lehar's Yours Is My Heart Alone from "The Land of Smiles", Only A Rose from Rudolf Friml's "The Vagabond King", and Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! from Victor Herbert's "Naughty Marietta".