Anna Moffo
American lyric-dramatic soprano Anna Moffo rose quickly to become one of the world's best-known opera singers in the 1950s and remained a leading star into the 1970s.
Her parents were Nicolas Moffo and Regina (Cinti) Moffo. Anna made her singing debut at the age of seven in a school assembly with an African-American spiritual, "Mighty Like a Rose." She sang frequently in her town and surrounding regions. Possessing notable beauty to go along with her voice, she was offered a chance to audition for Hollywood.
She elected music instead, winning a four-year scholarship to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her teacher there was Eugenia Giannini-Gregory.
She won the Young Artists Auditions in 1955. A Fulbright Scholarship the same year enabled her to travel to Italy and study at the Accademica di Santa Cecilia in Rome with Luigi Ricci and Mercedes Llopart. To help support herself she worked as an X-ray technician and typist. She debuted on stage as Norina in Don Pasquale (Donizetti) at Spoleto. Her warm, lyric voice and full tone attracted much attention, while her slim, attractive figure and beautiful stage appearance suited her to visual media. She was engaged to sing the title role of Butterfly by television director Mario Lanfranchi. This 1956 broadcast made her an instant star in Italy, and gained her international fame. She sang other Italian television opera productions, including Lucia di Lammermoor and La fille du régiment). She made her French debut in 1956, singing Zerlina (Mozart's Don Giovanni) at Aix-en-Provençe. She appeared throughout Italy, and debuted at Teatro alla Scala in Falstaff in 1957. She first appeared in America as Mimi in La Bohème at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. In the same year she married Lanfranchi.
On November 14, 1959 she first sang at the Metropolitan Opera in what was to be one of her most important roles, Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata. In 1960 she began to host a program about opera on Italian Television, "The Anna Moffo Show," which continued until 1973. She was voted one of the ten most beautiful women in Italy. In the 1960-1961 season she sang three roles at the Met, Gild in Rigoletto, Adina in L'Elisir d'Amore, and Liù in Turandot, with Franco Corelli and Birgit Nilsson. She was a major vocal recording artist on the RCA Victor label.
Some of her other important roles were Pamina (The Magic Flute), Luisa Miller, Debussy's Mélisande, a sparkling rendition as the heroine in Offenbach's operetta La Perichole, and all four leading female parts in the same composer's Les contes d'Hoffmann. She sang at the major European opera houses, and was most associated over he career with the parts of Violetta (which she sang over 900 times) and Lucia di Lammermoor (500 performances). She appeared in filmed and videotaped operas, but also in non-operatic dramatic films, including the prize-winning Una storia d'amore.
In 1972 she and Lanfranchi were divorced. In 1972 she married Robert Sarnoff, the chairman of RCA. By 1974 she had sung 220 performances in 18 operas at the Met, and allowed herself to be pushed into making too many commitments. In that year she suffered a severe vocal collapse, which kept her off the stage for two years. When she returned, she focused more on lyrical parts., but soon was able to expand to the more dramatic roles by Verdi (Leonora in Il Trovatore, for instance) and in 1991 added Bellini's Norma. In 1999, the Met honored her with a gala celebrating the 40th anniversary of her debut.
© Joseph Stevenson /TiVo
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Anna Moffo - The Complete RCA Recital Albums
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on Nov 13, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Arias from Faust; La Bohème; Dinorah; Carmen; Turandot; Semiramide; Lakmé
Classical - Released by Living Stereo on Jul 26, 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi · la traviata
Anna Moffo, Richard Tucker, Fernando Previtali, Orchestra dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia
Classical - Released by G.O.P. on Mar 31, 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini - Madama Butterfly
Anna Moffo, Renato Cioni, Oliviero de Fabritiis, Orchestra di Milano della Rai
Opera - Released by G.O.P. on Jun 27, 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi · Luisa Miller
Anna Moffo, Carlo Bergonzi, RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra, Fausto Cleva
Classical - Released by G.O.P. on Jun 5, 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: La Traviata
Classical - Released by Living Stereo on Dec 29, 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Anna Moffo sings Arias from Faust; La Bohème; Dinorah; Carmen; Semiramide; Turandot; Lakmé
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on Jul 26, 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Luisa Miller (Moffo, Bergonzi, Verrett / RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra, Fausto Cleva)
Full Operas - Released by bmg music on Jan 1, 1964
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Arias from Faust, La bohème, Dinorah, Carmen, Turandot, Semiramide, Lakmé
Classical - Released by Living Stereo on Nov 6, 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Great Moments of Die Fledermaus
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on Aug 24, 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Verdi Collaboration
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on Jan 1, 1962
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Donizetti · Lucia di Lammermoor
Anna Moffo, Nicola Filacuridi, Fernando Previtali, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano della Rai
Classical - Released by G.O.P. on Apr 30, 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Singers of the Century: Verdi & Mozart Recital
Opera - Released by Jube Classic on Nov 18, 2022
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Madama Butterfly
Classical - Released by RCA Gold Seal on Jan 1, 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dreamticket to LA TRAVIATA
Opera - Released by Preiser Records on Nov 3, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bellini · La sonnambula
Anna Moffo, Danilo Vega, Bruno Bartoletti, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano della Rai
Classical - Released by G.O.P. on May 30, 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini - madama butterfly
Anna Moffo, Cesare Valletti, Erich Leinsdorf, Orchestra del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
Classical - Released by G.O.P. on Mar 29, 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Donizetti - Lucia di Lammermoor
Anna Moffo, Carlo Bergonzi, Georges Prêtre, RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra
Classical - Released by G.O.P. on Feb 28, 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: La Traviata (Remaster)
Herbert von Karajan, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Anna Moffo
Opera - Released by Nar Classical on Feb 27, 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Reader's Digest Music: Anna Moffo Sings Operetta
Opera - Released by Reader's Digest on Sep 20, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini · la bohème
Anna Moffo, Richard Tucker, Erich Leinsdorf, Orchestra Dell'Opera Di Roma
Classical - Released by G.O.P. on Mar 10, 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo