For the First Time (1959) (German title: Serenade of a Great Love) is a 1959 musical film written by Andrew Solt and directed by Rudolph Maté. The film starred Mario Lanza, Johanna von Koczian, Kurt Kasznar, and Zsa Zsa Gabor.
The film was shot at the Spandau Studios in Berlin and on location in 1958 in Capri, Italy; Salzburg, Austria; Berlin, Germany, and at the Rome Opera House.
While names are being read by the judge after the bar brawl, two names after Mario Lanza's character's name is called the judge calls Antonio Cocozza. Lanza's father's real name is Antonio Cocozza.
This film, For the First Time (1959), was tenor movie star Mario Lanza's final film. Born in Philadelphia to Italian immigrants, an aspiring opera singer, after an early public performance, he was signed by Louis B. Mayer and remade into a singing superstar, doing concert tours, having a national radio show, in addition to being an MGM film star. He was the first singer to ever to sell over a million records, in both classical and popular categories. Had he been allowed to become an opera performer, he would have rivaled the greatest singers. Instead, he popularized his opera singing for the common man through his recordings, and inspired singers all over the world, including Elvis Presley. Tenor Plácido Domingo was quoted: "Lanza's passion and the way his voice sounds are what made me sing opera. I actually owe my love for opera . . . to a kid from Philadelphia." After The Great Caruso (1951), an awestruck Arturo Toscanini called it, simply and correctly, the "voice of the century." In a final ironic twist, this film was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer six weeks before his death, the very studio who fired him five years before, earning a profit of $1,685,000.
The film earned $710,000 in the US and Canada and $975,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $1,685,000.