Anna Moffo - Manon

[kasha1932]

Oh how I love this woman's silky, velvety, smooth, belcanto voice! No swooping on that last note in the stratosphere! I'm glad she did not become a nun as her mother wished!LOL! Oh how I loved actually seeing and hearing Anna in person...twice! And we enjoyed her so much we bought more tickets. She had an amazing stage presence...as if she were singing straight to us in the third row center! BRAVISSIMA ANNA! Actual eye contact! A real GEM!

[dungeounmaster]

WOW... and Dessay still thinks she can dare to compare to a singer like this??? she must be dreaming

[udayanchandra]

The Art of Prima Dona & the 'bel canto' tradition impeccably distilled in 3 minutes with immeasurable grace & elegance.

[singerswithpresence]

Thank you for sharing. Part of being a pro is to make it look easy and not showing the mechanics or indeed what one has eaten for lunch! Miss M of course had the advantage of being lovely to look, secure technique and ease which made her a joy to watch, but in a way this detracted from the real beauty of her voice espcially right at the top - no all purpose' aw' vowel sound, real colour & control. Career was far too short. Thank heavens for people like you sharing these glories.

[dngrbunny]

Her husband pushed her in to taking on a grueling film and tv schedule ON TOP OF the operatic roles. Thank heavens the voice held up as long as it did and we have these priceless gems to remember her by.

[snelopy]

check this version: watch?v=wbmgDtVnX1U&videos=mp_­55B2yclU

A 19 year old from south africa

[MastersoftheOpera]

Beautifully sung Manon. I love Anna Moffo and that dress is so beautiful.

[mckavitt]

I do not understand all this talk about Moffo's mouth and throat. Singing with the mouth nearly closed is a sign of possessing technique. Why open your mouth wide when you don't have to? The best singers always sing, except in the highest range, with their mouths very little open. I'd never seen Moffo before this video--but had always liked her voice and operatic interpretations. Here i see the why. She is physically straight-backed but relaxed, hence the great technique. Pure pleasure!

[GodsFavoriteBassPlyr]

One of the Great, Great Talents of our age.

I listen to Anna Moffo and forget there is 'bad' anywhere in the world.

[khothye]

Many singers open one side of their mouth more than the other (like Domingo, Bartoli, etc.). I think that this wasnt the reason of the declining of her voice. Seeing and listening her, I think that she had problems with the liberation of the sound: she used too much the muscles of the neck and doesn't relax enaughly her throat. A pitty, because for me she was he best lyric soprano. However we have this wonderfulls recordings.

[wedidntknow]

No... her beauty was the decline. She was in such a demand that she began to take on the Verdi and Puccini Heroines in which her voice was too light to sing on a regular basis. her voice just could not compete with the demand!! It is unfortunate!!

[AshleyTAdamsOnline]

@khothye I agree with your theories - I have also wondered sometimes if it was because she wasn't always singing the best repertoire for her voice. Singing Un bel di AND the Shadow Song AND the Bell Song is kind of a warning, and I once read that she always blamed it on her ex-husband/agent for pushing her into repertoire designed to please audiences even if it wasn't the healthiest or appropriate weight/tessitura for her

[aljkr]

Quando Anna è morta,alla Rai, dando poche notizie, si disse...'a 40 anni perse la voce'...non mi sembra proprio. Anna qui canta in maniera eccellente.L'avrebbe persa col tempo come tante altre colleghe(Callas compresa).E'stata una cantante eccellente.

[fellinian]

Questo è solo un recital, i problemi vengono quando si deve cantare un'intera opera per 3-4 ore.

[DAVIDA1944]

Can anybody tell me if this on a CD.

[DAVIDA1944]

Have you ever seen or heard anything more beautiful???? I certainly haven't

[branko1b]

yes, i have seen and heard things more beautiful - also Moffo's recordings :)

by the way this is after the time when she, herself, considered that she can't do her best, and gave up singing

[branko1b]

i can't give myself a " + " here - roflmao - but all i'm saying is that if there is anything more magnificent then this that it's Moffo again

[Mariannapetrof]

unica strepitosa grande mitica anna moffo!!!!

[Julia20045]

i´m speachless

[Ruffiello]

How can anyone sing with such ease and such beauty?

[tjb286]

She just messed up the words and confused verses, but that's ok. She took it in stride. She's still wonderful!

[klokheten]

Absolutely enchanting.

Moffo was a really exciting artist.

[octopussy51]

Meravigliosa, da perderci la testa per la gran bella voce e per la sua bellezza !!!

[sagagossard]

BRAVISSIMA

[tervonlis1955]

without question the most beautiful voice ever to come out of the USA!

[organdude44]

She still is the best. Brava Bellissima!

[kakadoodoo3000]

@organdude44 absolutely! bravissima!

[Brucesky72]

This is wonderful. And now a days were stuck with Fleming struggling to get through it and Dessay screeching the high parts. Goodness, what happened to singers like this?!

[shantibel]

@Brucesky72 Couldn't agree more about contemporary singers!

[CHARIOTEERDC]

True!

[arturo8402]

vocal decline aside she still had one of the most beautiful soprano voices of all time!!

[33blueberries]

Netrebko is the poor man's Moffo ;)

[SENAFOREVER]

So, so, so true!!!

[GermanOperaSinger]

Netrebko is the retarded man's Moffo. Netrebko is the deaf man's Moffo. Netrebko is the blind man's Moffo. Fans of Netrebko have never heard of Moffo. Anna Moffo, the most beautiful soprano ever, my favorite coloratura singer.

[rrgallo]

Agree absolutely

[cleanears]

Brava Anna... That's the way i like to remember you!

[wotansings]

Hey folks this is nice to look at and pretty nice to listen to... indeed her voice declined, she sang too many parts out of her voice, recorded too much, to many TV Shows etc, I think she was just exhausted. Who would not be tires: look many roles she had in her repertoire in a very short laps of time. It's a pity, the business broke her.

[Hyleg43]

Marvellous, unbelievable voice!!! What a soprano and what a beautiful woman!

[mrrk]

Stunning. Love her voice.

[seneca91]

The aria is "Obéissons quand leurs voix appelle," from MANON (1884) by Jules Massenet.

[UrsulanChild]

Wow...I was so unaware of the vocal demise of Anna Moffo until reading these comments. I notice that there was a lot of pressure in her phonation, especially the releases of phrases. Her high notes were in place, but what's with the habit of singing through a relatively closed mouth? Is this a lyric coloratura thing? She left many beautiful moments for us to cherish. May she rest in peace.

[mjmacmtenor]

Actually the closed mouth (esp. for the higher register) is an old school Garcia technique that can be traced back to singers in the 19th century. You can also see it in the videos of Roberta Peters who was schooled in this technique.

[AshleyTAdamsOnline]

@mjmacmtenor we are taught this way at my college, and now I teach my own students this way. I have had QUITE a time convincing people that this technique works!!

[Dymension]

Her vibrato is already getting "fluffy", although overall it's still pretty good...

[wnwnrt]

LA DIVINA!!!

[33blueberries]

La Bellissima!!!

[shivastotravali]

As to Moffo pushing her voice too much, someone who was also a student of Eufemia Giannini Gregory at the Curtis Institute at the same time as Moffo told me that already then she had a reputation for trying too hard to impress. What caused the eventual collapse of the voice is unclear, but the seeds of the things that went increasingly wrong were there from the very beginning. Aside from the fact that she was often ill, having her nose fixed probably didn't help either. Great talent, sad story.

[shivastotravali]

I followed the last ten years of Moffo's career with adoring but anguished obsession, and I think zciweslab is right that this had to be one of her "on" nights. From the late 60s on, she was frequently in crisis: she collapsed onstage singing Traviata in Berlin (miscarriage), at Ravinia 1968 they announced that she was ailing and hauled out a stool for her, which she clutched the back of for the remainder of the program, her 1971 album "La mia voce per Venezia" was already getting iffy, etc.

[SimSutcliff]

Quelle divine créature!

[lefemmerachael]

forgive... i have never heard her b4, she seems to have excellent control etc.!! have to hear more of her!....brava!!!!!!!! very good!

[silvr94]

the quality of the video isn't the best...and this is pretty late in her career as a singer, a few years before the declination of her voice!

[tenore23]

Bravissima! Wow!

[ANTICHITASCIPPA]

UN BEL VIDEO SALUTI, DA NAPOLI!

[zciweslab]

this must have been a good night for her in1972. i heard her in hartford singing 'boheme' with pavarotti in 1974 and she was really in vocal trouble. scooping up to every entrance- even repeated notes! she was obviously not happy with all the applause the pav was garnering.

[trogi51]

favolosa , bellissima!!!!

[brightboy86]

Beautiful woman, beautiful voice!

[sschimel]

This is not Moffo at her best, but I have to say that it's still better than a lot of what I'm hearing today. I just bought her French Arias and Verdi Arias albums on Ebay, which I'm going to convert to CD and post here. I've been trying to get the Verdi arias for years but it's never been issued on CD

[xilpix]

This is the end of her carier, she was about 40 when her voice go away. She sang too much and her paid the price of that messy activity.

[DivaDeb1234]

Are there any books about her life?

[freespiritQC]

I look in Amazon and google and I didn't see anything so probably not.

But you can find some small biographies on the net. Just type her name in google.

[eleanorgloria]

There is a long poem called "Ode to Anna Moffo" google it.

[DivaDeb1234]

She always seemed to push her lips to the side (especially on high notes) in order to "hear" hearself sing in her own ear. This is just a habit but not a good one.

DIVADEB

[DivaDeb1234]

I don't really know anything about her career . I've seen some amazing clips of her singing arias. But I always felt she was somehow uncomfortable with her technique. Even though her voice is beautiful.

DIVADEB

[freespiritQC]

Well, if I had to be uncomfortable with my technique in my next life, that's the way I would like to be...

[DivaDeb1234]

Hi

OH, I agree she is beautiful and she sings like a goddess. But I've heard by reading some comments here that she lost her voice early and I I thought maybe it was a little unsureness of her technique that led to that.  Not to take anything from her...I love her!

DIVADEB

[freespiritQC]

I think that the problem came with, like for Callas and Pavarotti, doing too dramatic roles at an age when naturel capacities are going down.

Many singer had to stop a year or so to rebuilt their technique at around 40. She was very intense and probably wanted to do bigger roles but it killed her voice.

[freespiritQC]

This is french opera, you HAVE to pronounce, the music is totaly based, in its structure, on the text.

For an anglophone, her french is quite good.

What a loss that voice....

[camandrula]

qué guapa¡¡¡¡¡

[Fredzeblak]

The for ever Opera SuperModel!!

[Jabe88]

She's so beautiful... And her voice is completely ravishing!

[eleanorgloria]

If there is a Diva that sings to each opera fans heart, Anna Moffo is the Soprano for mine. Love Moffo. Thanks so much for this clip

[tamerlano]

God, what a voice! SO LOVELY. It IS hard to believe that the voice would fall apart so badly only four years later. The infamous Lucia of hers is SO sad to listen to -- just hideous. Still, I love her.

[jfpira]

Tra i piu' grandi soprani de mondo.

[jmccracken1963]

It's a very good performance of the aria. Consider that she was 3 years removed from the disastrous LUCIA broadcast that Mr. Bing nearly cut short because she was in such poor voice and that, within 4 years, her Met career (and, really, her career everywhere) would be over. A great performance by a classy and talented lady: she certainly was DEAD ON for this one!!!

[gigioMP]

Che CLASSE. Grande.

[beefnotfish]

I've always loved Anna Moffo and think she is underrated...but Beverly was the living incarnation of Manon in every way.

[tjaphrodite]

beautiful x2 one of the better Manon's better than sills

[patjan1992]

Effortless! Absolutely beautiful in every way.

[bigsteel83]

i wish she would have gotten more exposure she had great ornamentation and she was so stunning she could have done recorded videos of all the innocent women elvira, gilda, etc.

[jmahlon]

cant stand the scooping up to the note thing she does.

[erin129]

my, aren't we picky...

[drdre333]

Sorry, but that "scoop" is written in the music. It's the style (she's supposed to be coy and flirty). Brava Moffo! This is a beautiful account of this piece.

[jmahlon]

For me its overdone and to pronounced, and she does elsewhere as well.

[patjan1992]

You are right about the "scoop". Also, it was a technique encouraged by Mme. Eufemia Gregory, her singing teacher at Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.

[BigOperaguy]

Everything with such ease. Fantastic!!!

[bigsteel83]

she was so beautiful

[mrrk]

Stunning.

[FABRIZIO82]

Magnifique!!!!