Metropolitan Opera Diva ANNA MOFFO discusses her close relationship with ROBERT MERRILL in conversation with Baritone Stephen Texon. Part of a full length tribute to Merrill, soon to be released.
Love Moffo's voice - full and warm with no heaviness. We are so lucky to have her legacy and her recordings. A great American soprano, now a great heavenly soprano.
Surely, and thanks for asking. The interview took place in the beautiful apartment of my late parents, on West End Avenue in New York City, in the Summer of 2003. As you can see she retained her stunning beauty all her life. Her premature death came only several years later. She was a true DIVA with the grace and warmth of a Tebaldi!
Anna Moffo had so much to offer. In her prime, she was gorgeous, and she possessed a beautiful lyric soprano voice. But something happened. Her voice began an early period of decline from which it never recovered. Her greatest singing period was from the late 1950's to the late 1960's. After that, everything went downhill even though she retained her drop-dead gorgeous looks. She was a great artist, a beautiful lady, and she is sorely missed by me and many others. May she rest in peace.
Still such a beautiful, beautiful lady...on the inside and the outside. Gilda, Violetta, Luisa, Cio-Cio-San, Mimí, Lucia (the list goes on) Anna moves me to tears EVERY time!! 😢💔😢 R.I.P. La Bellissima.
Thanks you Larry for your lovely comments! She was a rare flower, supreme in her prime, but delicate in her duration. She was one of the all time greats, with great physical beauty to match the divine voice!
How very generous a friend she was! I saw her Violetta in Philadelphia in the Met tour in the late 60's, and she was really the absolute complete embodiment of that most difficult character in every way; vocally , from the colouratura fireworks to the long line lyric passages: she had it all, and made it all sound easy and natural. And it was not only her legendary beauty, but her wonderful stature and regal comportment on stage that , gave her complete credibility as a cortasane (sp.) of total distinction; such as I seriously doubt had ever been seen before nor certainly, has ever been seen since. RIP to a great lady of opera and song.
She had not only her pretty looks, her intelligence, her musicality and her spectacular voice. Although I've never seen her nor met her irl, her charisma is evident. She obviously had that "IT" quality so necessary for a great artist. I was surprised about the hard things that Gedda in his memoirs had to say about her (and about Sills, Tebaldi, Björling and others, so perhaps he was like a bit negative in his outlook...lol...) because I sort of felt just when listening to her incredibly Susanna: "A woman who sings so lovingly and so full of joie de vivre cannot be but a very nice person." Well I'm glad that your comment supported my instinctive view.
Moffo. Same as Monroe, Hepburn, Plisetskaya, Fontain.... Queen who people and artistic royalty adored! She was above Prima Donna and Diva. Even people who did not go to opera, knew who AM was !! Went too soon. The best Traviata and Lucia. God, she was a Goddess 🙏💖🎭💙🌙🌹💔❤️❤️❤️
Prima Donna means that she could sing every tessiture and she did not. She didn't sing the dramatic repertoire like Lady Macbeth, Don Carlo or even more difficult Medea or Wagner... Callas did, that's why Callas could be mamed Prima Donna. I remain a great Moffo admirator anyway.
She would have deserved greater attention from the critics. I find her Nannetta (with Karajan) unsurpassed. But of course there are many more roles in which she excelled. Add to her vocal qualities her classy beauty and you get the whole lot. What a talent che was.
Thank you for expressing your love for Anna Moffo. She was a rare flower who reigned supreme at her peak! Sometimes the rarest of beauty and greatness fades too prematurely, but the world was blessed to have her and to know her. G-d rest her precious soul!
Nice interview from one of the most beautiful voices and beautiful women in all of opera. Like everyone else, I never understood her sharp decline, but it unfortunately happens to many singers. Unlike everyone else, however, I've heard Thais, and it's not bad at all. And the Montimezzi opera with Domingo is pretty good. And the Met Gala - true, the middle voice is inaudible, but the beauty and top notes are still there. I think people hear a bad story and enjoy perpetuating it. She still had lovely singing to offer.
This just might be a good place for me to THANK YOU TUBE for omitting a certain selection from appearing. I believe it was one that really did harm to all concerned...the performer and the listeners as well. THANK YOU so very much!
Thanks for asking. Not quite ready yet, as there is a big funding need holding it up for some time. We are getting there however, and I'm fervently hoping that viewers of the MERRILL/MOFFO clips who are admirers of these 2 superstars, and who have the financial resources, will offer some contribution to help see this project through to completion. I may be contacted by email or on my website. Thanks again!
Greetings Sir! I was truly honored to read your heartfelt comments about Anna. I would like to speak with you at your convenience about this treasured interview and about myself, if you'd be so kind as to allow me. With many thanks, Stephen Texon. (Miami, Florida)
Yes, I have that recording of JUIVE. All the problems in her voice are on full display while Tucker, in his last professional recording, is sensational. Well, although her decline was premature, she lasted longer than Elena Suliotis and Cecilia Gasdia!
Thanks so very much,stevetexon! As you might know by now, I am, and have been a great admirer of ANNA MOFFO for many years, and was fortunate enough to see and hear here twice while she was in the Detroit area. She was absolutely captivating onstage, and we enjoyed her so much we returned the next evening. We were so close she actually smiled at us, I'm sure. I believe she was just too, too great for most people (vocalists) to really acknowledge as much as she deserved. None can compare!
Yes Larry, I agree completely, especially about the Butterfly being too heavy, and she is onstage constantly! We will never know the full story of what caused the premature deterioration of her divine vocal instrument. I believe certain factors in her personal life contributed to this plus a certain physical fragility that she had. Her own personal physical fragility came through in the physical declines of both Violetta and Mimi, two of her greatest portrayals!!
She exhausted herself doing too much! In the old days, singers cancelled if their voices weren't in order, (you have to change your muscle memory to make it work.) If you do this , you have to undo it and rehabilitate your technique. If you don't, the damage is done. Voices must be constantly in a state of check. Flagstad went back to her teacher every year and a half to make sure that she was still singing correctly.
Yes, the La Juive recording exposed the vocal problems, but not as heartbreaking as those in the Thais recording. Although looking gorgeous as usual for the Album covers, this was a mistake! In her prime, Anna was SUPREME!!
Thanks for your comments. I think there were some other health issues involved in her premature decline. In her prime she was truly supreme in Lucia and Rigoletto.. and later on in Pagliacci. Her natural strength gave way to fragility.
I've always wondered whether Anna considered herself to be Italian or American! I've listened to her in different interviews both in English and Italian, and i must say that her English was better than her Italian, in which she came across as a foreign national speaking Italian, although to an ecceptionaly high standard. But even so i could detect every now and again little inflations in her speach that would give her away. I myself am fully Italian but having spent more time of my life living in England, still to these days i cannot hide my origins. And neither can she!
Anna Moffo has left us with a generous legacy in sound: on EMI she was Musetta to Callas' Mimi, Ninetta in "Fastaff", the Italian singer in "Capriccio", a Mozart recital, a bel canto recital. On RCA she was Mimi, Violetta, Gilda, Louisa Miller, Lucia, Euridice, several beautiful recitals, etc. I was a teenager when she came to the Met, and I thought she was almost as beautiful as Elizabeth Taylor. The voice had a "ping" to it that was uniquely her own. Her first husband worked her like a
Her singing of the last phrase of Nanetta's aria in one breath is stunning. And has anyone ever sung the "Rondine" aria with such ease and elegance? {That was rhetorical.}
Hello. I am really sorry about this incident. I did not read the entire descripition and did not look at the user's name. Please accept my apologies, I did not mean to offend you. I was trying to reffer to anybody from the viewers that might know her age, not that you don't have a clue about this :( Thank you very much for sharing this and for your reply. She was a very beautiful woman and here she is very beautiful also. All the best and I hope you can accept my apologies.
In part, she sang the wrong repertoire early, but she claimed vociferously that it was her husband-manager who mucked around with her technique and got her off track. Likely a combo of both.
Although I never heard it, I'm sure you're right. By that time there was just no masking the decline, even with studio fixes. BTW, her appearance at the Met Centennial added a second half note of nostalgic glamour, but she was in dreadful voice.
Hello there- Kindly just ask me directly, the one who conducted the interview. When you say "anybody", it sounds like I and the producers don't have a clue about this. She was 71 years of age at the time, and tragically passed away from a stroke 2 years later at age 73. Thanks.
dog and she was singing such unsuitable roles as Butterfly. The voice was not nearly weighty enough for that role. Also, there may have been something in her technique that was flawed. Later on, after 1969, she took on roles like Tosca, recorded a Carmen and a Thais (which should never have been released it was so bad) and was always talking about singing Norma. I'm glad she didn't. Bottom line: her relatively early passing saddened me greatly, but her art and beauty is legendary.
Hey, what is with you Sir? Is there not enough spontaneity for you from Anna here? There was NO script, and Anna clearly echoed my original remark about a "seamless voice" on her OWN, repeating my words in agreement. The producer just interjected his suggestion to have her repeat the whole phrase in a COMPLETE sentence.I told you that this is NOT the final edit. Is this small clip taken from a larger video not perfect enough for you?? Is it not professional enough for you??
Stephen Texon You know her nick? "LA BELLISSIMA" and Anna Moffo was not only bellissima but a very good Operatic Soprano she trilled like a nightingale, her voice was plenty of sensuality
Oh Larry Mitchell, when Ms Moffo started out on her career she had that mellifluous, velvety, rich timbre with effortless tops and great interpretation as well, that had most of her contemporaries green with envy and she was like the "new hope" for a coloratura soprano, leaning to the spinto type voice. BUT! As you said, something happened and she had a very short career and unfortunately didn't know when to call it quits and continued recording even as the voice deteriorated. She IS missed.
