Anna Moffo

Anna Moffo
Moffo in 1962
Born	(1932-06-27)June 27, 1932 Wayne, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	March 9, 2006(2006-03-09) (aged 73) New York City, U.S.
Occupations	Opera singer (soprano) television personality actress
Years active	1956–1974
Spouses	Mario Lanfranchi ​ ​ (m. 1957; div. 1972)​ Robert Sarnoff ​ ​ (m. 1974; died 1997)​

Anna Moffo (June 27, 1932 – March 9, 2006) was an American opera singer, television personality, and actress. One of the leading lyric-coloratura sopranos of her generation, she possessed a warm and radiant voice of considerable range and agility. Noted for her physical beauty, she was nicknamed "La Bellissima".^[1]

Winning a

In the early 1970s Moffo extended her international popularity to Germany through operatic performances, TV appearances, and several films, all while continuing her American operatic performances. Due to an extremely heavy workload, Moffo suffered a serious vocal breakdown from which she never fully recovered. Her final appearance at the Metropolitan Opera was in 1983.

Early life

Anna Moffo was born in

Career

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Janet Cox-Rearick Waldman

(left) at a cafe in Rome in 1954, when both were Fulbright Fellows in Italy

Moffo made her official operatic debut in 1955 in

Moffo was also invited to sing at the San Francisco Opera where she made her debut as Amina on October 1, 1960. During that period she also made several appearances on American television, while enjoying a successful international career singing at most major opera houses around the world (Stockholm, Berlin, Monte Carlo, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, etc.). At the Metropolitan Opera in March 1961 with Birgit Nilsson and Franco Corelli she performed in Turandot as Liù, conducted by Leopold Stokowski.^[4] She made her debut at the Royal Opera House in London, as Gilda, in a Franco Zeffirelli production of Rigoletto. Shortly after the Italian tenor Sergio Franchi joined RCA Victor, they recorded a popular album of operetta duets, The Dream Duet, which peaked at number ninety seven on the Billboard 200 in 1963.^[5] Later that year Franchi and Moffo collaborated in recording excerpts from Die Fledermaus with the Vienna State Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Oskar Danon. In 1999 this album was re-mastered and re-issued in High Performance Stereo.^[6]

Moffo remained particularly popular in Italy and performed there regularly. She hosted a program on Italian television "The Anna Moffo Show" (two series: the first in 1964; the second in 1967) and was voted one of the ten most beautiful women in Italy. She appeared in film versions of La traviata (1967) and Lucia di Lammermoor (1971), both produced (with the Italian TV director

Her heavy workload led to physical exhaustion and serious vocal impairment in 1974, from which she never fully recovered. Although she continued to sing in staged opera through 1980, her appearances became more sporadic. Her last performance at the Met was during the 1983 Centennial celebrations, where she sang the Sigmund Romberg duet "Will You Remember?" with Robert Merrill. After retiring from singing Moffo remained active as a board member of the Metropolitan Opera Guild and by hosting several tributes and giving occasional masterclasses.^[7]

Personal life

Moffo was married twice, first to stage and film director Mario Lanfranchi, on December 8, 1957. The couple divorced in 1972. Her second marriage was to Robert Sarnoff, the chairman of the RCA Corporation, on November 14, 1974. He died on February 22, 1997.

Anna Moffo spent the last years of her life in New York City, where she died in 2006 of a stroke at age 73, following a decade-long battle with breast cancer.^[4] She is interred with Sarnoff at Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York.

Filmography

Selected RCA Victor recordings

External audio
You may hear Anna Moffo performing Verdi's " La Traviata" with Richard Tucker, Robert Merrill and the Rome Opera Orchestra conducted by Fernando Previtali in 1961 Here on Archive.org

• 1956 – Puccini – La bohème - Maria Callas, Anna Moffo, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Rolando Panerai - Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Milano, Antonino Votto
• 1957 – Puccini – Madama Butterfly – Anna Moffo,
  Rome Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf
  .
• 1960 – Anna Moffo – Arias from Faust, La bohème, Dinorah, Carmen, Semiramide, Turandot, Lakmé – Rome Opera Orchestra, Tullio Serafin.
• 1960 – Verdi – La traviata – Anna Moffo, Richard Tucker, Robert Merrill – Rome Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Fernando Previtali.
• 1961 – Puccini – La bohème – Anna Moffo, Richard Tucker, Mary Costa, Robert Merrill, Giorgio Tozzi, Philip Maero – Rome Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf.
• 1962 – Pergolesi – La serva padrona – Anna Moffo, Paolo Montarsolo – Rome Philharmonic Orchestra, Franco Ferrara.
• 1962 – Recital of Verdi Heroines – The RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra, Franco Ferrara.
• 1963 – Verdi – Rigoletto – Robert Merrill, Anna Moffo, Alfredo Kraus, Rosalind Elias, Ezio Flagello – The RCA Italiana Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Georg Solti.
• 1963 – Puccini – Manon Lescaut (Highlights) – Anna Moffo, Flaviano Labò, Robert Kerns – The RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra and Chorus, René Leibowitz.
• 1963 – Massenet – Manon (Highlights) – Anna Moffo, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Robert Kerns – The RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra and Chorus, René Leibowitz.
• 1964 –
  Songs of the Auvergne / Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras / Rachmaninoff: Vocalise – Anna Moffo – American Symphony Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski
  .
• 1964 – Verdi – Luisa Miller – Anna Moffo, Carlo Bergonzi, Shirley Verrett, Cornell MacNeil, Giorgio Tozzi, Ezio Flagello – The RCA Italiana Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Fausto Cleva.
• 1965 – Gluck – Orfeo ed Euridice – Shirley Verrett, Anna Moffo, Judith Raskin – Polyphonic Chorus of Rome, I Virtuosi di Roma, Renato Fasano.
• 1965 – Donizetti – Lucia di Lammermoor – Anna Moffo, Carlo Bergonzi, Mario Sereni, Ezio Flagello – The RCA Italiana Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Georges Prêtre.
• 1966 – Puccini – La Rondine – Anna Moffo, Daniele Barioni, Graziella Sciutti, Piero de Palma, Mario Sereni – The RCA Italiana Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli.
• 1974 – Halevy – La Juive (Highlights) – Richard Tucker, Martina Arroyo, Anna Moffo, Juan Sabate, Bonaldo Giaiotti –
  Ambrosian Opera Chorus, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Antonio de Almeida
  .
• 1974 – Massenet – Thaïs – Anna Moffo, José Carreras, Gabriel Bacquier, Justino Díaz – Ambrosian Opera Chorus, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Julius Rudel.
• 1976 – Montemezzi – L'amore dei tre re – Anna Moffo, Plácido Domingo, Pablo Elvira, Cesare Siepi – Ambrosian Opera Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra, Nello Santi.

References

Further reading

• The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia, edited by David Hamilton, (Simon and Schuster, New York 1987).
  ISBN 0-671-61732-X
• The Metropolitan Opera Guide to recorded Opera, edited by Paul Gruber, (W. W. Norton & Company, 1993).
  ISBN 0-393-03444-5
• Anna Moffo: una carriera italo-americana, edited by Mario G. Genesi, Orion Editions, Borgonovo V.T., 2002, 496 pages. The only biography, complete with discography, chronology, filmography, with many photos.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Anna Moffo.

• "Anna Moffo, 73, Soprano and Arts Advocate, has Died" Archived September 24, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Opera News, 10 March 2006 (subscription required)
• Anna Moffo at
  IMDb
• Interview with Anna Moffo, November, 1990