My favorite story about this particular diva involves a Metropolitan Opera performance of La Traviata a couple of seasons ago, where two pretentious old queens were standing against the railing of the As with her frequent stage partner Robert Merrill, I was first introduced to her singing my senior year of high school when I picked up highlights of their classic recording of La Boheme. She specialized in opera's fragile heroines: Mimi, Violetta, Gilda, Lucia.
She was thin, beautiful, glamorous and an affecting actress but her early career was badly mismanaged (too much, too soon, too often) which resulted in a vocal crisis from which she never recovered. Fortunately several recordings were made during her brief but glorious vocal prime. The best of these is a spectacular Lucia di Lammermoor (sadly not presently available), partnered by a vibrant Carlo Bergonzi exuding exemplary Italianate dramatic interpretation and flawless bel canto legato, a robust and menacing Mario Sereni, and the amazing and much under-appreciated Ezio Flagello.
Her spectacular technique allowed for a warm, easy full lyric sound with tremendous coloratura agility, stretching easily up to high E-flat and beyond. Her top notes were brilliant and secure, including a sustained high F in "Ah, non giunge!" For a time she was the Met's reigning Violetta, combining Sutherland's technical proficiency with Scotto's dramatic insight and expressive power and a timbre all her own.
2 comments:
Given her date of birth and, by implication, the likely period of her prime, I suspect it's unlikely her Lucia will be out of copyright any time soon, and therefore Naxos (still the best remasterers in the business) won't be in a position to issue it for a while yet.
It's more than likely there will be a few commemorative issues on the way, however, which may well include excerpts from that recording, if not the whole thing.
Anna Moffo's biography is acquirable in Italy :for further information please write to Giuseppe Genesi
Via Angelo Genocchi numero 50 -Cap. 29100 Piacenza Italy .The Book is huge (over 500 pages ) with hundreds of footnotes and about 200
photoes .
Luxurious !
Giancarlo Zaffignani
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