Anna Moffo
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The American soprano Anna Moffo (born June 27, 1932) is a famous opera singer active in the 1960s. Moffo is much admired for the purity of her voice and her great beauty.
Moffo was born in Wayne, Pennsylvania. After graduating from high school, Moffo was offered the opportunity to go to Hollywood to make films, but turned it down because of her intention to become a nun. However, she won a scholarship to Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and went to study there. Shortly thereafter, in 1955, she won the Young Artists Audition and a Fulbright scholarship to study at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
Moffo made her stage debut in 1955 as Norina in Donizetti's Don Pasquale in Spoleto. The following year, she appeared in a television production of Madama Butterfly, staged by Mario Lanfranchi, a producer for RCA Victor and RAI, whom she married in 1957. That year, she also made her La Scala debut in Falstaff and her American debut as Mimi in Puccini's La Bohème at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Moffo made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1959 as Violetta in La Traviata. She returned to the Met in the 1960-61 season to sing three new roles, Gilda in Rigoletto, Adina in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, and Liù in Turandot with Birgit Nilsson and Franco Corelli.
Moffo divorced Lanfranchi in 1972 and married former RCA chairman Robert Sarnoff in 1974. In the late-seventies, Miss Moffo began singing, heavier Verdi roles, such as Leonora in Il Trovatore and Lina in Stiffelio.
Moffo was particularly popular in Italy. She hosted the "The Anna Moffo Show" there from 1960 to 1973 and was voted one of the ten most beautiful women in Italy.de:Anna Moffo fr:Anna Moffo