The Mario Lanza Story
Episode 1
50 years ago this month, in October 1959, the well-loved singer and Hollywood star Mario Lanza died in an Italian clinic at the tender age of 38. In this two part series, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa presents a revealing portrait of an extraordinary singing talent who influenced a whole generation of tenors, including Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. Lured away from a promising future in opera by Hollywood's millions, Lanza's career rise was meteoric. Yet his story is a real American tragedy. He suffered ill-health after years of drinking, overeating and crash dieting, there was a split from MGM, and his career was curtailed by an untimely death. The Mario Lanza Story features brand new interviews with, among others, Lanza's daughter Ellisa, his best friend Terry Robinson, renowned tenor Jose Carreras and actor Terence Stamp.