Sunday, March 15, 2009

Anna Moffo



Don't you love Anna Moffo? Who wouldn't?

One of the most affectingly beautiful opera singers of the 20th century, Moffo turned down a chance at a Hollywood career in order to focus on serious Opera. She was an Italian-American born and raised in Pennsylvania, and became an overnight success in Italy after a television broadcast of Madama Butterfly with Moffo in the role of Cio-Cio-San.

According to Wikipedia:

She hosted a weekly program on Italian television "The Anna Moffo Show" from 1960 until 1973 and was voted one of the ten most beautiful women in Italy. She appeared in film versions of La traviata (1968) and Lucia di Lammermoor (1971), both directed by her husband Mario Lanfranchi, as well as a few non-operatic films.

In the early 1970s, she began appearing on German television and in operetta films such as Die Csárdásfürstin and Die schöne Galathee. She also recorded with Eurodisc the title roles in Carmen and Iphigenie in Aulis, as well as the role of Hansel in Hansel und Gretel.

Such a heavy workload, however, led to physical exhaustion and a serious vocal-breakdown in 1974, from which she never fully recovered.



View: Anna Moffo - "Sul fil d'un soffio etesio" (from Verdi's Falstaff)

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