For the First Time (1959 film)

For the First Time is a 1959 musical film directed by Rudolph Mate and starring Mario Lanza, Johanna von Koczian Kurt Kasznar and Zsa Zsa Gabor. It was tenor star Mario Lanza's final film, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer six weeks before his death. The film tells 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.
It was shot at the Spandau Studios in Berlin and on location in 1958 in Capri, Salzburg, Berlin and at the Rome Opera House. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Hans Jürgen Kiebach, Fritz Maurischat and Heinrich Weidemann.
Reception.
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."
Box office.
According to MGM records the film earned $710,000 in the US and Canada and $975,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $1,685,000.
References.
Cesari, Armando. "Mario Lanza: An American Tragedy" (Fort Worth: Baskerville, 2004).