For the First Time (1959 film)

For the First Time (1959) is tenor star Mario Lanza's final film. Filmed on location in 1958 in Capri, Salzburg, Berlin and at the Rome Opera House, the film told the sentimental story of an operatic tenor (Tony Costa) who finds love for the first time with a young German woman (played by Johanna von Koczian), who happens to be deaf. The film was directed by Rudolph Mate, and featured Kurt Kasznar and Zsa Zsa Gabor in supporting roles. Critics singled out Lanza's singing of "Vesti la Giubba" from Pagliacci and the Death Scene from Otello for special praise, with Howard Thompson of The New York Times calling it the tenor's "most disarming vehicle in years."

References

Cesari, Armando. Mario Lanza: An American Tragedy (Fort Worth: Baskerville, 2004).

External links

• For the First Time at the Internet Movie Database
• For the First Time: Lanza's Sweet Little Swansong, by Derek McGovern