Anna Moffo & Nicolai Gedda La Traviata duet (vaimusic.com)

[sttar1982]

shes beautiful<3

[blessOTMA]

Honk if you love Opera! :)

[DCFunBud]

Moffo was the greatest. I was never a Gedda fan, but I think he did a fine job here.

[mazzone1]

Gedda is such an overrated tenor. terrible bleating voice. terrible

[jhutch1463]

The first opera I ever saw was Traviata with Moffo. The ending made me sob. Oh what a beautiful evening that was.

[hazelssister]

 Anna Moffa was underrated.

[ShawDAMAN]

this is somewhat unorthodox but he's my favorite Alfredo. He's good at portraying dashing, tragic, besotted and somewhat self absorbed young men... and Gedda fits the role perfectly in my opinion. Plus on the recording with Sills he made the "oh mio rimorso" cabaletta seem like a worthwhile part of the opera, and his soft singing in the duets is beautiful.

[Anapaula761]

Fabuloso!!!!

[289cerritos]

She was born to play this role...perfect voice and so beautiful; she held out to be sure this was her Met debut.

[arissss1962]

A brilliant Violetta and Alfredo.

So many singers taking this role so beautiful way.

[sanslanommer]

I love Gedda, so much sentiment! I would agree that he is better in Russian and French than in Italian. His sensibility comes through better in those languages than in Italian, which requires a more macho voice.

[yahudit]

one of my favorite opera, awesomeeeeeeee

[striker9410]

Good job.

[Goethefemme]

How wonderful to finally be able to see both of them in their visual prime. As a kid I dreamed of seeing each on stage, but never had the chance. What limited repertoires modern singers have compared to Mr. Gedda. Bless him!

[fabrizzzio48]

You don't really like this tenor.

Obviously, you've got preeetty bad taste!

[ShawDAMAN]

Agreed.

[unotenore]

i stand corrected on more poor biographical facts regarding the lifespan of Ms. Moffo, but I stand firm on the other issue. my issue with Germanoperasinger remains the same, and you two ladies who chose to correct me took no issue with such maljudgement shown there by the afore-mentioned Germanopersinger. celebrate our american 'greats' and leave the snips of their few faults to the idol ones who do little more than live their lives to be critical.

[Herur22]

You stand corrected for the bigraphical data but you don't explain what you yourself wrote about the shorter career. I didn't and I won't say anything about the technique, because I don't know anything about it, but the well known fact is that Moffo was losing her voice already in the late sixties and she had a real breakdown in 74. I have for example a live recording of Lucia from 69, which is awful.

[monpitt500]

@Herur22 You are right her medium and low register cost he her voice!

[Webarton]

Short career? Giving recitals in his 80s? Short?

[unotenore]

I'm amazed that "gernamoperasinger" thinks that Moffo had bad technique: perhaps in your narrow world of german technique! Never in your wildest dreams could you possibly achieve her success vocally as she was truly magnificent. The Lady became ill and died early in life which might explain her shorter career.

[Herur22]

I am not sure what do you mean by "died early in life". She was born in 1932 and died in 2006.

[otazay]

Correct, she died at 73. I don't understand why people spout such nonsense when it's so easy to check facts on the internet! Her career was shortened by a vocal breakdown in 1974, probably the result of an extremely heavy workload, and she appeared only sporadically after her recovery in 1976.

[Kroaky]

she is my favourite ever soprano, not saying she was the best, but def my fave

[halavey]

Moffo had a beautiful voice and her 1960 traviata recording with merrill and tucker is available and one of her very best recordings.

[GermanOperaSinger]

Actually Moffo had a bad technique, no support. That's why she burned out so young. There is no doubt, though that she was far superior to Netrebko in terms of natural talent and beauty of voice. She is still one of my favorites (Moffo I mean).

[Dogaradodia]

Certified Intergalactic!

[geomusic]

Moffo.... wow!

[Loismustdie26]

Is this the 1968 movie?

[dks880]

Wow look at Gedda's heart shaped forehead.

[voxkey]

Verdi captured the nuances of the libretto perfectly with his composition. This is my favorite opera. It is so beautiful, it hurts.

[Ichichan0326]

I looooove this part in the opera! The music is gorgeous (although the whole thing is amazing <3)

[mozzrt]

In real life he wanted to bite her, not to love her....

[gregansley]

Everybody, Just be happy we have this. There is no comparison. Moffo was Moffo, she held her own with Callas,and everyone else singing during her prime , she was beautiful and had a wonderful individual voice.  she should always be praised.. She was wonderful.

[Webarton]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I can't deal with all this bullshit, I am going to make a FAQ on vocal technique so people freaking can read it instead of me explaining to people the same damn thing every single time...

[flon5flon]

Nobody asked you Mr. Phoney Canzoni!!

[flon5flon]

Nobody asked you Mr. Phoney Canzoni!!

This was of course to Webarton!

[classictomatosoup]

LOL! So true.

[Webarton]

And also, IDEALLY, 100% of the vowels should be formed with the lips and mouth.. not the tongue, thats the only way to free the voice completely.

[wedidntknow]

i disagree totally! if you know how vowels are made then you know that tongue position plays the biggest role in vowel production. vowels should be formed by the tongue and the dropping the jaw. the lips only aide in the process. singing with too much of the lips actually dampens the sound causing tension. ultimately making it harder to sing by chewing the consonants.

[SopranoE]

My opinion: the tongue should change as little as possible and be as relaxed as possible.

[wedidntknow]

there is no way you can form vowels without moving the tongue. the sideblades of the tonge automatically touch the top back molars when singing e, and E, you cant get around it. if yours arent try it; it just may help your singing. watch the mouths of any of the greats they role their tongues so forward to create the right vowel formants.

[SieurPlanchet]

I would love to hear your diction while singing without moving the tongue.

[wedidntknow]

you can keep your mouth in the same position and by changing the position of the tongue only make clear i,E, and A. only for the O and U are you forcesd the slightly pucker the lips to make a distinction. But the tongue still does most of the work. The lips are more influential in the formation of consonants which should always be rapid late and clear. making way for the vowel!

[Webarton]

See, you know how nasal everyone says Kraus is and shit, its such a load of crap, listen to the last vowel Gedda sings in this clip, hes trying to keep an easy to blurr vowel focused, and if you say that that is nasal, ur a fucking idiot because its not, its just him trying to keep it high.

[pasfresh123]

I like Gedda but not in video. I can't stand his mouth mannerisms. He's always doing "è" with his mouth. It's not necessary, the sound comes out just as much if you open your mouth the same as if you were talking. It's as if he was following a teacher's recommendation of singing "with a smile". You end up with a lot of "a" instead of "o", even on middle notes.

[Herur22]

But he was following a teacher's recommendation of singing with a smile! This is connected with the position of the throat muscles, if I remember well.

[pasfresh123]

I know, that's my point. And of all famous good singers, he's the only one who does that. Does that mean those who don't do it are not singing correctly?

[Herur22]

1) The question is of course irrelevant,serving only rethorical purposes. There isn't only one technique and different singers may adopt different approaches. Some of them may even not chose the right one for their voice and their careers may be consequently shorter.

[pasfresh123]

Of course, it's because you're not intelligent enough to understand what I meant.

[Herur22]

Typical! When one has not any more argument "ad rem", he uses the argument "ad hominem"!

[wedidntknow]

I agree, there isn't just one technique. what works for one student may not work for another. A student should run if their teacher is not constantly learning and trying new ways to make him/her understand what it is they want to hear. Gedda's technique works for him. His teacher found what works and look at the great output. it is one of the cleanest and clearest tenor voices i've ever heard. May i add beautiful

[Herur22]

2)As Gedda was one of the most famous singers, praised for his technique and with very long career evidently this technique served him very well. In his biography he tells that he had some problems with the voice before he continued his studies with Paola Novikova (who thought him the "sorriso" technique)and that after a few months all problems magically disappeared.

[Webarton]

Helps focus the tone, if you consciously feel that area, many singers don't have to do that, they just sing into that space naturally, without having to do this.

[cjondoran]

vowels are not formed in the mouth, but in the throat

[pasfresh123]

bullshit. 10% throat, 90% mouth.

[cjondoran]

i would just love to hear where you came up with that ratio. if you ask gedda, he would agree with me since he was the one who said it in the first place. but keep doing what you are doing.

[oscalinetto]

such a bullshit. the main formants for the vowels are created by the position of the tongue in the mouth. nowadays this can even be clearly shown by tomographic views!

[bbahyt]

for my taste gedda is better in french and russian roles. Somehow the masculinity is missing here. The movie with moffo-bonisolli is more impressing.

Absolutely tremendous is Geddas performance as Lensky and Werther which are more suited for his lyric tembre.

[shaktim]

WOW

[TheInquisitive4Ever]

Kraft-The masses have been stupidified by the publicity industry to make them a mass consuption robot, that is why. Or, under the best circumstances they have been fed second class artists such as Netrebko and Villazon these day.

[kraftpr]

Whatever happened to this GLORIOUS programming on Commercial television stations? Corporate giants like Ma Bell & Firestone supported symphony orchestras and brought artists of this calibre into our homes! So sad what's become of television today. Aside from the handful of "Live From Lincoln Center" & "Live From the Met" productions, 95% or more of what's on the BOOB TUBE today is GARBAGE!! FILTH! GUTTER-TALK! INANE DRIVEL aimed at the lowest common denominator. BRING BACK QUALITY PROGRAMMING!

[eleanorgloria]

At 2:03 she does the most beautiful bit of echoing. Love her. La Bellissima!

[thebaldchemist]

Birgit Nilsson and Nikolai is a version well worth the listen.

The Baldchemist

[coryisawake]

What?

[meforopera]

Brilliant! Anna's voice is muscular and resilient, a bright top and middle range!:) Her stage presence is breath-taking!

[bellasoprana]

Anna moffo is a queen of opera...verry impressive!!!! great techic...

[Zeppelin4962]

I love the bit at 1:05! The whole piece is brilliant.

[Herur22]

What happened at 1.05?

[Zeppelin4962]

The little trilly bit. It happens again at 1:18. It's just cute.

[dalferr]

Fantastic, vaimusic, thanks for posting this.

[pisces49]

I prefer Anna above Maria... what a voice she has at that time!

[sigclu]

Cut the crap, there was Callas and Moffo, both spectacular and both Divas. You can fry the rest.

[silvr1507]

Anna Moffo has the best "Violetta-voice" ever. A pity was not alive to experience a talent like Moffo on stage...

[freespiritQC]

Ridiculous, how can you compare that fine and refine singer to Netrebko. Moffo's voice is so vibrant, subtile, «nuancée», and she acts according to the opera standards, she does not play the vamp.

Boy, do I miss those real classical singers.

[Twisterjoe]

I seldom see anyone who can stand still and deliver a sentence in an aria anymore. For all the vaunted modern "acting", I often see a lot of busy-ness and very tense emoting in the work of contemporary singing. To me that is worse than the supposed lack of acting in the elders. The stillness and directness, and occasionally a sense of fun in these performers is more like a good broadway performer doing much harder music.

[rozatulyag]

Netrebko sings well but has no feeling in her singing, everything is too mechanical. Moffo made and still makes people feel the emotions of the character.

[tHEnOOSEsWINGS]

These two have on screen chemistry. I like the way Moffo skill trills through complex passages. Tenor: Nicolai Gedda has one of the most extraordinary and expansive recording careers of any Opera singer. Able to facilitate on any level with any singer.

[janejones11]

I try to avoid comparisions but I'd like to comment on the Netrebko vs. Moffo discussion. Moffo did not have a perfect technique but she it was FAR greater than Netrebko's ( infinitely better coloratura , better diction, better breath control, easier acuti, more focused sound, greater musicianship etc). In terms of whose timbre is more beautiful, that is subjective. Personally, I think Moffo's voice is far more colorful, attractive and distinctive.

[mazaika1]

Totally agree.I find Moffo's voice very warm and beautiful.

[waldotube]

have you heard to Callas with Kraus in this aria???.. in Lisboe in 1958??..

it's simply wonderful...it seems like a pas de deux of sing....

[ncrunch]

this is the old world meeting the new world!!! gedda from europe and moffo from america!

[bellasoprano]

Absolutely wonderful! Two superior performers at their finest.

[vilches88]

how can you compare netrebko with moffo?? moffo is more pretty, anything else, moffo has a very better voice of course

[drsolus]

No, Moffo, though she may not be one of the very greatest, is still far superior technically to Netrebko. Her coloratura is more secure and the voice is brighter. That's not to say she's better, you can like who you want. But her technique is better. As for looks...well, firstly, who cares how they look if they sound gorgeous, and second...well, they're both beautiful, what more do you want! Haha.

[MehdiCaps]

LOL, good answer, drsolus. :)

[primadonna13]

And she can act well unlike some.... aAnd hopefully she did not descend to those modern vulgarities!!

[Glenmed]

Gedda, a supreme musician, linguist and performer. Moffo, the Netrebko of her day, vocally and visually. Great combination.

[gvjps123]

A beautiful performance. Moffo looks stunning too.