brazzi + tozzi = yum

Okay, I admit it. I am a sucker for musicals. South Pacific, 1958 is the perfect summer flick. Here's one of my all time favorite songs from the movie. Believe it or not, this fabulous voice does not belong to the dreamy Rossano Brazzi. It's that of the opera star Giorgio Tozzi, who was for many years a leading bass with the Metropolitan Opera, seen playing lead roles in nearly every major opera house worldwide. Tozzi's fabulous voice is the reason I love listening to this particular rendition of the song. The combination of Brazzi and Tozzi makes one incredibly delicious man.

After dubbing in the singing parts for Brazzi in South Pacific, Tozzi spent many years playing the role of de Becque himself in various revivals and road tours of the show, including one at Lincoln Center in the late 1960s. In 1980, Tozzi earned a Tony award nomination for best leading actor in a musical for his work as Tony in The Most Happy Fella. Tozzi worked extensively as an educator in professorships at Juilliard, Brigham Young University, and Indiana University. In 2006, he retired as Distinguished Professor of Voice at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana. I had the good fortune to meet the charming Mr. Tozzi when my daughter was an undergraduate vocal student at the Jacobs School in 2001.

In addition to South Pacific, here's a few other of my favorite seasonal flicks guaranteed to get you through these dawg days of summer:

Much Ado About Nothing, Lawrence of Arabia, Out of Africa, My House in Umbria, Cinema Paradiso, Light in the Piazza, Summertime, Burnt by the Sun, Swimming Pool, A Room with a View, and The Bridges of Madison County.

hepburn + brazzi + venice = yum

Did anyone else see Summertime, 1955, on TCM the other night? Gosh, I can't stop thinking about it. I thought I had seen all the David Lean films out there, but somehow this little gem fell through the cracks. It's about a lonely American spinster, who learns to accept imperfect love from a married art dealer, while on holiday in Venice.

This is a smaller, slower film than Lean's epics, and not quite in the same league as Brief Encounter, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The unique thing about this movie, is that it's filmed entirely on location in gorgeous 1950s Venice. The remastered Criterion Collection version is crisp, colorful and quite delicious. I'm not sure which was the most lip-smacking, the 39 year old Rossano Brazzi in a gray flannel suit or Venice. Hepburn is magnificent, at any age, and she certainly held her own, at 48, paired with the younger Brazzi.



I love the scene where Hepburn enter's Brazzi's shop and spots a wonderful vintage goblet in the window. It made me long to travel in time back to the Venice of the 50s and do some serious shopping. One interesting tidbit of trivia; there's a scene where Hepburn accidentally falls into the canal while taking a home movie of Brazzi's shop. As a result, she actually contracted an infection in her eyes that she battled the rest of her life.

Although this film is a predictable love story, it's not a sappy one. It's poignantly real and deals with the deep fear and emotion felt by Hepburn's character. The quintessential Lean photography is breathtaking. It made me want to pack my bags and head straight to Venice. In the meantime, I'm going to buy myself a DVD for my little manor library.