The One Tenor

Updated in May, 2016 and available in hard copy for the first time, The One Tenor is a labor of love for life-long Mario Lanza devotee, New Zealand radio and television broadcaster Lindsay Perigo. It's the bringing together of his best Lanza-related essays, critiques and interviews over the years, with significant new material exclusive to this book, including Perigo's take on the theory that Mario Lanza suffered from Bipolar Disorder. This theory was first touted in the biography of Lanza by Roland Bessette, with little explication. In The One Tenor Perigo interviews Bessette, who elaborates on his theory for the first time. Perigo responds with a theory of his own in his stellar chapter, "Mario's Magic Madness." The author stresses in his Preface that The One Tenor is not a biography, but a chance to glimpse the overpoweringly charismatic Mario of screen and record. It is an informed, loving but critical celebration of the tenor of whom Dame Kiri Te Kanawa says flatly, "No one has ever been able to replace him. Ever in a million years." As current tenor superstar Joseph Calleja, himself inspired by Lanza to become a singer, observes in a new Foreword for this edition, Mario Lanza was "a man and voice for the ages." Savor this historic musical phenomenon through the pages of The One Tenor!