Mario Lanza was 38 years old at the time of his death. He died in Rome at the Valle Gullia Clinic on October 7, 1959. Such a very early age, far too early for such a great talent. It was his plan to make his professional operatic debut in Italy at La Scala in Milan the next year, 1960. A truly great voice silenced much too soon. The great conductor Arturo Toscanini called Mario Lanza's voice: "The greatest natural tenor voice of the twentieth century