Anna Moffo born 27 June 1932

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 was the possessor of a lovely, warm-toned lyric soprano voice. 

Noted for her physical beauty, she was nicknamed "La Bellissima". She was the perfect interpreter of those innumerable operatic heroines like Violetta in La Traviata and Mimi in La Bohème, two typical examples in Italian opera with Massenet's Manon and Antonia in Les Contes d'Hoffmann in French. Although the greater part of her career was spent in America - she sang for 17 seasons at the Metropolitan in New York - Moffo also appeared in many of the capitals of Europe, including London, where she sang Gilda in Rigoletto at Covent Garden, as well as several music festivals. 

Anna Moffo was born in Wayne, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Italian parents. Her father worked as a shoemaker. She studied singing with Eufemia Giannini at the Curtis Institute and later gained a Fulbright scholarship for further study in Italy, where she worked in Rome with Luigi Ricci and Mercedes Llopart. She made her début in 1955 at the Spoleto Festival, singing Norina in Donizetti's Don Pasquale. Moffo's spectacular good looks ensured a great interest from film and television cameras alike, and in 1956 she sang Madama Butterfly for Italian television which made Moffo an overnight sensation throughout Italy. This was directed by Mario Lanfranchi, who later became Moffo's first husband and her manager. 

The following year Moffo sang Nannetta in Verdi's Falstaff at both the Salzburg Festival and at La Scala, Milan. Seldom can Shakespeare's "sweet Anne Page" (as she is in the original play) have had a more enchanting interpeter. After these European triumphs, Moffo returned to the US to make her début in Chicago, as Mimi in La Bohème. Her Rodolfo was Jussi Björling. Though nearly twice her age and at the end of his career (he died three years later), he was vocally a perfect partner for the young soprano. Moffo had three other roles at the Lyric that season: Mignon, Le nozze di Figaro (with Tito Gobbi, Giulietta Simionato and Eleanor Steber) and Lucia di Lammermoor. On at least one occasion her performance of Lucia's Mad Scene earned Moffo a 10-minute standing ovation. 

                                   

In the late 1950s, she recorded Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, opposite Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Giuseppe Taddei, conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini; and recitals of Mozart arias with EMI. She then became an exclusive RCA Victor artist. Moffo returned to Italy in 1959 to make the first of two films in which she appeared, Austerlitz, directed by Abel Gance. The multi-national cast of this epic account of the defeat of the Austro-Russian armies by Napoleon included Leslie Caron, Claudia Cardinale and Orson Welles among its guest stars. Moffo's second film appearance was for Paramount in 1970, when she played a small role in The Adventurers. Of rather more importance to her growing reputation as an opera singer was Moffo's début at the Metropolitan on 14 November 1959, as Violetta in La Traviata. 

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.). 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), as well as many non-operatic films. 

By the end of the Sixties the soprano's voice was beginning to show signs of wear and tear. This blew up into a full-scale vocal crisis in 1974, when Moffo realised, too late, that she had sung far too much, far too soon. At first it was thought she might never sing again, but she persevered, retraining her voice and in 1976 she returned, with a small new repertory. 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. 

Anna Moffo spent the last years of her life in New York City, where she died of a stroke at the age of 73 years on 10 March 2006, following a decade-long battle with breast cancer. She is interred with Sarnoff at Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York. 

(Edited from Elizabeth Forbes obit @ The Independent & Wikipedia)