TRUE professionalism! True...not at her best but my God....the timbre, the techinque which makes it sound fluid even though she is clearly working! One had to be a Moffo to pull such a hard piece through despite all! It's not how wonderful one sounds, but rather how one treats the difficulties with ease. What impressed me most is the squillo, long lines..smooth piece of chocolate with NO HOLES whatsoever. Just one little crack! The luscious sound is why she is who she was!
This performance is like a recently completed painting by a master that has had turpentine tossed on it.
The shape, form and structure are all still there in part, but the colors of each phrase are amorphous; they spread, cascade, and become murky ...a very visceral experience.
@coryisawake - i don't really get "turpentine tossed" - i presume you are referring to the presence of deeper timbre and colour ('the substance') - Moffo uses her voice in a way that allows all consonants and all vowels to be heard - lyrics delivered (!) as different from (amorphous) change of notes (often, more or less) devoid of natural qual. of a human voice - this is extremely rare
this a young woman singing after 1st time making love; visceral? - of course; natural? - surely!
Absolutely SUBLIME!!!! No more need be said on this , Miss Moffo....you are divine and sublime! Thank you ....Non can compare. Rest in Peace, lovely Anna.
@John - Yeah people just don't take the stage like they used to. Now adays we all have to try to sound like a CD ... We can't just let it all hang out anymore. "Depuis le jour" is literally about a woman who has just had sex ... Why not sigh and make guteral noises ... it's probably what her character was doing just a few seconds before the aria began ... I think if it makes you want to rip your clothes off, the singer has done her job.
Lucky sopranos from the past!!! You got to scoop and slide all over the place, and we modern day singers have to be so clean and perfect all the time. Darn it - why did we get rid of that tradition? It makes our lives so much harder.
@CrowneLeah Maybe these tighter technical restraints are why there just don't seem to be any exciting or emotional singers any more. Too worried about perfection to be able to relax and feel the music? There do seem to be a lot of perfect but boring singers these days.
Are these not just portamentos that are stylistically appropriate? I'm certainly no expert, but this is really just exceedingly beautiful singing and isn't that the point?
@CrowneLeah I don't know, I'm surprised how much I'm allowed to slide (maybe not THIS much :P) and how subtle I don't have to be about the whole thing. I guess it depends who you're studying with? But I think passion should trump perfection every time.
I believe that I saw this on a telecast when I was in my early teens. I was beyond captivated and, in fact, hopelessly, helplessly infatuated with Anna Moffo, like most of my peers were with early rock stars. I also fell so head-over-heels in love with "Depuis le jour" that, nearly half a century later, it remains my favorite operatic aria. I've heard it countless times over the decades and seen it performed almost as many, but I've yet to witness an interpretation to match this one.
@opera888able i'll reply to your question as if it's genuine, it sounds more as a rhetoric one (more so, you give a part of the answer to it)
not her best, she seems quite aware that she is struggling to keep it at her standard, and gave up singing soon afterwards - nothing substandard about the performance though, still more expressive, nicer listening, then other 'renown' sopranos
re 'fleeting' - how short is 20 years of a VERY busy career? only fault was a need for EVERYTHING to be beautiful
I agree that her voice really isn't at her best, but this is an absolutely stunning and captivating performance!! This is just.. beyond words ._. Wow!
I have always loved and adored Moffo, too. However, this is not one of her best performances. Although I am not a Cotrubas fan her reading of the aria is quite good.
I certainly would not sneeze at Dorothy Kirsten's version of this aria.She studied the role with the composer (Charpentier)---and it shows. Goregeous! And Kirsten NEVER gave a bad performance,
when i listen to it on headset this is the best, on speakers Price is Better, it is recorded in an entirely different way (!) Price's (great) recording does not bring the vice forward so much as this one
Moffo's attempts to pronounce words (that would explain "tension-lack-of-smoothnes-lay-theories" here) is very much in a way of enjoying the music - lol
Price (impeccably) acknowledges most of the vowels and a few consonants which is much preferred way with this kind of french vocal music
I don't understand! EVERY phrase is squeezed and strangled at the onset... Most of them generally come out OK, but it's so difficult.... It's hard to watch. Compare Leontyne's secutiry and smoothness. Is this really 1960? I thought Moffo's difficulties came later.
It's important to hear how Moffo begins just a out every phrase with a straight tone then begins her vibrato. In my world, straight tone=tension. Something for all young singers to avoid, when building their technique.
luce570, to use your pontificating tone, i'd say that it is important to be able to listen properly not to make uninformed judgements based on what has appearance if an informed opinion - that's for the listeners
for the singers - telling them to avoid to sing (or try to sound) like Moffo, would not be quite a good idea for a vocal teacher, also, it would be like telling paupers not to waste their money on fancy cakes - right?!
I didn't mean for my comment to be anything but helpful, and if the tone of my blurb comes off as what you said, then I apologize to you and to anyone who agrees with you. But in my defense, my comment was not a "judgement" and also not "uninformed"...You could stand to write a little plainer yourself. Your "pauper/fancy cake" analogy pretty heady...
no need to apologise - i don't apologise for my impulse to warn people who read comments... it is my opinion that your 'informed opinion' is preposterous - with a pretence of helpfulness; possibly construed on the fact of her vocal crisis (most of informed people would agree in a guess that she was simply overworked) which had nothing to do with her technique. btw, she had the same teacher as Kraus and some other (especially technically) great voices of last century.
Anna Moffo is maybe my favorite soprano, my idol. She was so complete: beautiful, brilliant and sensual voice, perfect top, middle and low registers, fabulous interpretation and acting, great coloratura and phrasing. For me she was at the level of Callas. Also a beautiful woman. I'll never be tired to listen her extraordinary talent. It's true that her career was short, but Callas's too. The important thing is she gave us wonderful recordings to enjoy for ever this gift of God.
Hi I am answering a couple of mails. Ebony, it is true that she was a great diva. She is one of my few favourites, so what I am pointing out is out of love for this great artist. Maybe you are right, she was not underrated, she had a short career. Some years ago I was told that opera fans did not forgive her for that. I found it cruel. And now I am answering other mail. Gays did not 'kill' her, maybe I was in an excessively emotional day, and exxagerated. No bigot at all. Apologies.
I appreciate your interest. I might seem pretty picky about the interpretation of this aria; it's just that when I first learned it and listened to a recording by Callas, I started laughing and baffled my teacher. The lyrics were so 'happy' and almost every recording I've heard has had this melancholy, langorous, even solipsistic feel to it. In the early 20th century recording overseen by Charpentier, one can almost imagine the character dancing and twirling while singing this aria.
Sounds like Shirley Bassey. Well, Shirley was operatic :) Sorry, love Moffo, she's gorgeous, but this is too crossover at this point, style and sound is like belting. The facial expression is very instructive, though, for interpretating this aria. Louise was of an urban lower class teenage bride. Of course there would be sensuality, but not with this '60s style sensual expression.
Gosh, you are 33 and recall pre-1900 facial expressions?! Kidding. I grant you that cultural expectations do change, but I'm not at all sure that hard-wired human facial expressions have changed a whit in 108, or 48, years.
Don't know what you mean. I'm speaking of her facial expression in terms of interpreting the lyrics of the aria -- it is 'instructive' precisely because human facial expressions don't change over the years ; the 'sensual expression' refers to the tempo and the orchestral interpretation of the piece, which is langorous and sensual throughout; it was not so in the recording during Charpentier's time or in other contemporary recordings.
I'm sorry, we are talking about Gustave Charpentier who died in 1956, and composed the opera Louise, whose aria this is supposed to be. Marc-Antoine Charpentier is a composer of baroque music, a style of which this aria is certainly not. There is a recording of a production which Charpentier oversaw in the early 20th century.
I posted her French Arias album (including this aria and recorded at about the same time) and the Verdi Arias album here. Even past her prime, she is better than a lot of people in French repertoire. Interestingly, the top of her range remained long after the middle and bottom failed her. There's a Lucia mad scene from 1969 on the web somewhere where she completely melts down and can't sustain phrases... but then she sails up to the top.
Talk about making love...goodness...this aria opens up with an amazing sensuality, and she milks and works it, remembering that moment as if it were happening all over again. There are some technical red lights that went off, yes, but nonetheless a dramatic, truthful, committed performance. Though Anna would not have pleased everyone with this essay of the aria, she sure did please me. Especially the "...et je tremble..." phrases. Mmmm... Resquiesat in pace, Anna.
I followed Anna Moffo from the beginning of her Met career. Not only at the old Met but at the new I saw every performance she did of La Traviata and more. No one can second guess why a singer falls vocally but by 1968 it was almost over. There's no point in name calling. Other wonderful singers have experienced the same fate.
Dear Greatfan. Anna Moffo was NEVER underrated. She was recogized as a great singer while she was alive. In her prime she was included as part of the Quartet of Tebaldi, Price and Sutherland in terms of gorgeous sound and interpretive ablilty. Ask Rudoph Bing. Her prime was a very short one. Everybody will debate the reason.
Rather than an innocent girl singing of first love, she sounds here more like an experienced courtesan. This seems to from the years in Italy when she was making blue movies.
Now that she is dead people have come to understand how underrated she was ! People spoke of her being a RCA VICTOR favourite, of ruining her career. Mere ENVY ! She was so beautiful, so feminine, such a passionate, natural and great artist. Maybe if she had had THIS ACCEPTANCE she would have been alive. Sometime some kind of cruel gay opera lovers can help a singer...die !
Are you drunk ? Anna Moffo was a superstar and she had a long life and well lived, she was 73 when she died and she lived with much intensity, the was diva at the Metropolitan, she recorded many opera recordings, such a superstar career..SO for what you said a singer like Magda Olivero with her provincial career should have died 50 years ago!
i don't see the point in your mentioning'gay' opera lovers...i'm gay and i LOVE her, she's great and beautifully feminine and sensual; nothing against that, is there???? choose your words or at least specify them.
Anna's voice had no issues with support. Any singer knows how to support their voice, and have enough breath. She had a terrible vocal technical teaching, and the sad part is that once it was figured out, it was too late.
This video is an example of terrible technique.
Again I love Anna Moffo, don't get me wrong.
I just wonder how she would have sounded, with the correct teacher in the early years?
What exactly was wrong with her technique? She sang coloratura and lyric soprano roles and these role require a very developped technique. The thing about Anna Moffo is, that she overworked her voice with too heavy (Butterfly) and too many roles in her career.
I once knew a contralto who studied with Euphemia Giannini Gregory at the Curtis Institute at the same time as Moffo (and had no vocal problems that I am aware of, but had also stopped singing except for cabaret by the time I knew her), and she said that even back then Moffo had a reputation for "pushing" too hard. So it's unclear who's to blame. A Wikipedia search reveals that Judith Blegen also studied with EGG, however, and as I recall she had a similar comet-like, crash-and-burn career.
Judith Blegen "comet-like, crash and burn career"? Nah, she sang a fairly long time. Those high, light sopranos generally don't last but so long anyway. She may not have been at the Met for so long but I saw her after her hay-day and she could still sing pretty damn good
Oh good, I'm glad to hear it. She was certainly the coloratura of choice at the Met for a while, then just seemed to disappear completely. I do remember watching Great Performances broadcasts wondering how she could sing so well with her mouth shaking so violently. :-)
After the Met, she continued her career at a more regional level for some years. I think much the same became of a lot of singers like Carol Vaness. Not singing at the Met doesn't necessarily mean 'not singing at all'
Wow! What a moving and enchanting interpretation. I love the slightly dry middle of hers, it's quite "sensual". And she sings with beautiful technique and so much emotion. This is an excellent proof of Moffo's amazing talent, vocally and interpretively (and, of course, of her great looks). Thanks!
Just lovely, thank you onegin for posting this. I love Anna Moffo such warmth to her voice even on a bad day she has a better sound and heart than some of the so called "divas" of today!!
This is very interesting. I posted the recording she made in '75, and this one appears to be much earlier. And yet, she's already exhibiting the support problems that would mar her singing many years later. It's still gorgeous singing, the ends of phrases are a little iffy.
quelle belle faille!
wattever333 1 week ago
TRUE professionalism! True...not at her best but my God....the timbre, the techinque which makes it sound fluid even though she is clearly working! One had to be a Moffo to pull such a hard piece through despite all! It's not how wonderful one sounds, but rather how one treats the difficulties with ease. What impressed me most is the squillo, long lines..smooth piece of chocolate with NO HOLES whatsoever. Just one little crack! The luscious sound is why she is who she was!
harutandtarut2 3 weeks ago
wonderful voice, I love
KOCHKA1000 2 months ago
Awful.
MrCafiero 2 months ago
This performance is like a recently completed painting by a master that has had turpentine tossed on it.
The shape, form and structure are all still there in part, but the colors of each phrase are amorphous; they spread, cascade, and become murky ...a very visceral experience.
coryisawake 3 months ago 3
@coryisawake What on earth are you talking about?
njgeoffery 1 month ago
@coryisawake - i don't really get "turpentine tossed" - i presume you are referring to the presence of deeper timbre and colour ('the substance') - Moffo uses her voice in a way that allows all consonants and all vowels to be heard - lyrics delivered (!) as different from (amorphous) change of notes (often, more or less) devoid of natural qual. of a human voice - this is extremely rare
this a young woman singing after 1st time making love; visceral? - of course; natural? - surely!
branko1b 3 weeks ago
Comment removed
coryisawake 3 months ago
Simply amazing!
marinodee 4 months ago
How wonderful, first time I ever heard her sing this. I was lucky to find this, thanks for posting!
wbondar 4 months ago
Superb sublime magnificent woman
The world will not see such an angel again
Moffo is simply unique
Steve
stefankorrinz 5 months ago
Absolutely SUBLIME!!!! No more need be said on this , Miss Moffo....you are divine and sublime! Thank you ....Non can compare. Rest in Peace, lovely Anna.
kasha1932 6 months ago
@John - Yeah people just don't take the stage like they used to. Now adays we all have to try to sound like a CD ... We can't just let it all hang out anymore. "Depuis le jour" is literally about a woman who has just had sex ... Why not sigh and make guteral noises ... it's probably what her character was doing just a few seconds before the aria began ... I think if it makes you want to rip your clothes off, the singer has done her job.
CrowneLeah 8 months ago 3
Ms. Moffo's so easy on the eyes! Easily the most beautiful opera singer of all time--could have been a model. And her voice is exquisite.
windstorm1000 9 months ago 2
Lucky sopranos from the past!!! You got to scoop and slide all over the place, and we modern day singers have to be so clean and perfect all the time. Darn it - why did we get rid of that tradition? It makes our lives so much harder.
CrowneLeah 10 months ago
@CrowneLeah Maybe these tighter technical restraints are why there just don't seem to be any exciting or emotional singers any more. Too worried about perfection to be able to relax and feel the music? There do seem to be a lot of perfect but boring singers these days.
CalifaJohn 8 months ago in playlist opera
@CrowneLeah
Are these not just portamentos that are stylistically appropriate? I'm certainly no expert, but this is really just exceedingly beautiful singing and isn't that the point?
njgeoffery 4 months ago
@CrowneLeah I don't know, I'm surprised how much I'm allowed to slide (maybe not THIS much :P) and how subtle I don't have to be about the whole thing. I guess it depends who you're studying with? But I think passion should trump perfection every time.
orphyborphy 3 months ago
BRAVA!
PootahBear08 11 months ago
Indécent!
abracadabranque 1 year ago
SO SENSUAL!!! FENOMENAL!
rumisings 1 year ago
I've always loved Anna. Her vocal career was all too short, but thankfully we have so many of her best performances captured on YouTube. Brava Anna!
Pywacket2 1 year ago
I believe that I saw this on a telecast when I was in my early teens. I was beyond captivated and, in fact, hopelessly, helplessly infatuated with Anna Moffo, like most of my peers were with early rock stars. I also fell so head-over-heels in love with "Depuis le jour" that, nearly half a century later, it remains my favorite operatic aria. I've heard it countless times over the decades and seen it performed almost as many, but I've yet to witness an interpretation to match this one.
HerrProfessorDoktor 1 year ago
Is this Moffo at her best? I think it sounds a little" laboured". But you can forgive her a
little, she was so beautiful to look at listen to in the prime years of her fairly fleeting
career.
opera888able 1 year ago
@opera888able i'll reply to your question as if it's genuine, it sounds more as a rhetoric one (more so, you give a part of the answer to it)
not her best, she seems quite aware that she is struggling to keep it at her standard, and gave up singing soon afterwards - nothing substandard about the performance though, still more expressive, nicer listening, then other 'renown' sopranos
re 'fleeting' - how short is 20 years of a VERY busy career? only fault was a need for EVERYTHING to be beautiful
branko1b 1 year ago
I agree that her voice really isn't at her best, but this is an absolutely stunning and captivating performance!! This is just.. beyond words ._. Wow!
Zimtschaefchen 1 year ago
God given glory!!
bluedutch01 1 year ago
I don't love her voice, but wow what presence! I feel like I'm watching French New Wave...
larkin78 1 year ago
so beautiful...what a woman, she really had it all.
shaby3333 1 year ago
So beautiful
shishirth 1 year ago
I have always loved and adored Moffo, too. However, this is not one of her best performances. Although I am not a Cotrubas fan her reading of the aria is quite good.
Ernie1 1 year ago
You can not help but admire her Perfection.
magal55 1 year ago
WOW! Price is first in French music often for me!
lovesGenet 1 year ago
I certainly would not sneeze at Dorothy Kirsten's version of this aria.She studied the role with the composer (Charpentier)---and it shows. Goregeous! And Kirsten NEVER gave a bad performance,
jrtrmish 2 years ago
Grace Moore made the film "LOUISE" with Charpentier. and she was also a mentor to Kirsten.
mrfabulocity 1 year ago
5****))))))))(((((((******BRAWO
444mariam 2 years ago
when i listen to it on headset this is the best, on speakers Price is Better, it is recorded in an entirely different way (!) Price's (great) recording does not bring the vice forward so much as this one
Moffo's attempts to pronounce words (that would explain "tension-lack-of-smoothnes-lay-theories" here) is very much in a way of enjoying the music - lol
Price (impeccably) acknowledges most of the vowels and a few consonants which is much preferred way with this kind of french vocal music
branko1b 2 years ago
Ignore all the nitpicks, Anna, you were one of America's gems. We miss your beauty and charm. Brava!
Pywacket2 2 years ago
agreed I miss Anna, one of my favorite sopranos
bkmustang07 2 years ago
I don't understand! EVERY phrase is squeezed and strangled at the onset... Most of them generally come out OK, but it's so difficult.... It's hard to watch. Compare Leontyne's secutiry and smoothness. Is this really 1960? I thought Moffo's difficulties came later.
liedersanger1 2 years ago 2
...technically speaking...
Tenorboy29307 2 years ago
It's important to hear how Moffo begins just a out every phrase with a straight tone then begins her vibrato. In my world, straight tone=tension. Something for all young singers to avoid, when building their technique.
luce570 2 years ago
Comment removed
branko1b 2 years ago
luce570, to use your pontificating tone, i'd say that it is important to be able to listen properly not to make uninformed judgements based on what has appearance if an informed opinion - that's for the listeners
for the singers - telling them to avoid to sing (or try to sound) like Moffo, would not be quite a good idea for a vocal teacher, also, it would be like telling paupers not to waste their money on fancy cakes - right?!
branko1b 2 years ago
I didn't mean for my comment to be anything but helpful, and if the tone of my blurb comes off as what you said, then I apologize to you and to anyone who agrees with you. But in my defense, my comment was not a "judgement" and also not "uninformed"...You could stand to write a little plainer yourself. Your "pauper/fancy cake" analogy pretty heady...
luce570 2 years ago
no need to apologise - i don't apologise for my impulse to warn people who read comments... it is my opinion that your 'informed opinion' is preposterous - with a pretence of helpfulness; possibly construed on the fact of her vocal crisis (most of informed people would agree in a guess that she was simply overworked) which had nothing to do with her technique. btw, she had the same teacher as Kraus and some other (especially technically) great voices of last century.
hope this is plain enough
branko1b 2 years ago
Comment removed
luce570 2 years ago
Yes, the best rendition is by Edita Gruberova in a live recital with only piano.
res0597o 2 years ago
Does anyone sing this better than Ms. Moffo?
Anthrofocus 2 years ago 2
Yes, Mirella Freni.
elebecepe 2 years ago
I will give it a listen....
Anthrofocus 2 years ago
She's good. Just doesn't the suave and artistry of Anna Moffo.
Anthrofocus 2 years ago
Leontyne price, eileen farrell, renée fleming...
wotansings 2 years ago
I'll give you Leontyne. They have different, but equally beautiful interpretations of this.
Anthrofocus 2 years ago
Leontyne Price, in one of her greatest recordings, and Dorothy Maynor's stunning version is happily on YouTube.
billyguns2 2 years ago
Absolutely stunning. What an artist.
darkblue940 2 years ago 2
So much passion! Breath taking!
JosephCercy 2 years ago
Anna Moffo is maybe my favorite soprano, my idol. She was so complete: beautiful, brilliant and sensual voice, perfect top, middle and low registers, fabulous interpretation and acting, great coloratura and phrasing. For me she was at the level of Callas. Also a beautiful woman. I'll never be tired to listen her extraordinary talent. It's true that her career was short, but Callas's too. The important thing is she gave us wonderful recordings to enjoy for ever this gift of God.
khothye 2 years ago 2
ela tem uma interpretação incrível de" a non credea mirarte", La Sonnambula.
acac2001 2 years ago
This seems later than '60. She's just starting to get into trouble.
sethmalkin 2 years ago
Gorgeous music, gorgeous singing, gorgeous woman.
DAVIDA1944 2 years ago
WOW!!!!!!!!!!
geomusic 2 years ago
Anna Netrebko is my favourite one, but of "the old" sopranos I prefer Anna Moffo...always these Annas...;)))
ChristinaLuiseNikita 2 years ago 2
soo true, i love these Annas too !! :)
Solecit00 2 years ago
It's one of my favorite Depuis le jour.
mar5211 2 years ago
Gorgeous voice and gorgeous woman-very sexual rendition;loved it thank you for posting
rodlarocque 2 years ago
L'une des voix les plus originales et inclassables qui aient été ! Le timbre est gorgé de miel, et possède un chiaroscuro de rêve !
A la fois très sombre et léger, entier, homogène, c'est un alliage d'or et d'argent... UN TIMBRE DE PLATINE !!!!!
Viva la Moffo !
mariasarda 2 years ago
kinda stunning but also problematic...Sills does this the best, IMO.
pweny 2 years ago
I love getting Moffo on my birthday!
sschimel 2 years ago
Not sure all the portamenti are in the French style, but...she had something all her own. Thank God!
Ruffiello 3 years ago
strepitosa!
Mariannapetrof 3 years ago
For me she is fantastic, is diferent and emocional performance, but she hes other tecnic , is old tecnica but wonderful.
Alexmeister25 3 years ago
She breaks at 4:07, besides, 4:30 may not be the best, but,, she is so beautiful!!!
callastoujours 3 years ago
In the immortal words of Paris Hilton: That's HOT!
wotanman 3 years ago 4
Very intense and even sexual interpretation...Loved it!!!! Thanks Oneguin
rrgallo 3 years ago 7
Where/ when is this from? Who's the conudctor?
rrgallo 3 years ago
This is January 1970, Jahrhunderthalle in Hoechst,Frankfurt, Germany. The conductor is Nello Santi.
henry6805 3 years ago
Thanks a lot
rrgallo 3 years ago
Sorry, that was supposed to be reply to BrentAudi on the last comments page....
shivastotravali 3 years ago
She is simply GREAT. To see and to hear.
Hans NL
qklq42 3 years ago 6
Ê X T A S E A B S O L U T O!!!
rocchisal 3 years ago 2
Thanks for posting: beautiful voice, nice interpretation. I also love Eileen Farrel's and Caballe's earlier recording of this.
dolcefico 3 years ago
Hi I am answering a couple of mails. Ebony, it is true that she was a great diva. She is one of my few favourites, so what I am pointing out is out of love for this great artist. Maybe you are right, she was not underrated, she had a short career. Some years ago I was told that opera fans did not forgive her for that. I found it cruel. And now I am answering other mail. Gays did not 'kill' her, maybe I was in an excessively emotional day, and exxagerated. No bigot at all. Apologies.
Greatfan 3 years ago
I appreciate your interest. I might seem pretty picky about the interpretation of this aria; it's just that when I first learned it and listened to a recording by Callas, I started laughing and baffled my teacher. The lyrics were so 'happy' and almost every recording I've heard has had this melancholy, langorous, even solipsistic feel to it. In the early 20th century recording overseen by Charpentier, one can almost imagine the character dancing and twirling while singing this aria.
piax00 3 years ago
Anna Moffo is pure genius in this aria. Kiri's version is wonderful as well.
musikenergy 3 years ago
Sounds like Shirley Bassey. Well, Shirley was operatic :) Sorry, love Moffo, she's gorgeous, but this is too crossover at this point, style and sound is like belting. The facial expression is very instructive, though, for interpretating this aria. Louise was of an urban lower class teenage bride. Of course there would be sensuality, but not with this '60s style sensual expression.
piax00 3 years ago
Gosh, you are 33 and recall pre-1900 facial expressions?! Kidding. I grant you that cultural expectations do change, but I'm not at all sure that hard-wired human facial expressions have changed a whit in 108, or 48, years.
saphisticate 3 years ago
Don't know what you mean. I'm speaking of her facial expression in terms of interpreting the lyrics of the aria -- it is 'instructive' precisely because human facial expressions don't change over the years ; the 'sensual expression' refers to the tempo and the orchestral interpretation of the piece, which is langorous and sensual throughout; it was not so in the recording during Charpentier's time or in other contemporary recordings.
piax00 3 years ago
Thanks for the clarification, piax. 500 character limits create confusion.
I did say that I was kidding. I did so because I was not sure how we could know how things were prior to audio-visual recording.
Charpentier died in 1704. How could we have recordings from his time? Do you mean written descriptions?
saphisticate 3 years ago
I'm sorry, we are talking about Gustave Charpentier who died in 1956, and composed the opera Louise, whose aria this is supposed to be. Marc-Antoine Charpentier is a composer of baroque music, a style of which this aria is certainly not. There is a recording of a production which Charpentier oversaw in the early 20th century.
piax00 3 years ago
Thank you for the edification, piax. That certainly explains everything. Indeed, this does not sound baroque. My apologies for causing confusion.
saphisticate 3 years ago
I love it when an artist can share a moment like this. So beautiful!
Chilair1 3 years ago
Hello!
Didn't she herself say that she just got too tired? I believe she burned herself out. I also believe I read that she had a problem with insomnia.
Ruffiello 3 years ago
I posted her French Arias album (including this aria and recorded at about the same time) and the Verdi Arias album here. Even past her prime, she is better than a lot of people in French repertoire. Interestingly, the top of her range remained long after the middle and bottom failed her. There's a Lucia mad scene from 1969 on the web somewhere where she completely melts down and can't sustain phrases... but then she sails up to the top.
sschimel 3 years ago
GORGEOUS GORGEOUS...both in voice and looks
Italia1987 3 years ago 2
Shes a Goddess- stunning beauty and sumptuous voice. Love her to bits.
puppetoz 3 years ago
Talk about making love...goodness...this aria opens up with an amazing sensuality, and she milks and works it, remembering that moment as if it were happening all over again. There are some technical red lights that went off, yes, but nonetheless a dramatic, truthful, committed performance. Though Anna would not have pleased everyone with this essay of the aria, she sure did please me. Especially the "...et je tremble..." phrases. Mmmm... Resquiesat in pace, Anna.
UrsulanChild 3 years ago 2
I followed Anna Moffo from the beginning of her Met career. Not only at the old Met but at the new I saw every performance she did of La Traviata and more. No one can second guess why a singer falls vocally but by 1968 it was almost over. There's no point in name calling. Other wonderful singers have experienced the same fate.
profgv 3 years ago
Dear Greatfan. Anna Moffo was NEVER underrated. She was recogized as a great singer while she was alive. In her prime she was included as part of the Quartet of Tebaldi, Price and Sutherland in terms of gorgeous sound and interpretive ablilty. Ask Rudoph Bing. Her prime was a very short one. Everybody will debate the reason.
ebony1911 3 years ago 2
Waouh!!!!! Quelle interprète!!!!! Magnifique!
Yayahouette 3 years ago
Rather than an innocent girl singing of first love, she sounds here more like an experienced courtesan. This seems to from the years in Italy when she was making blue movies.
liedersanger1 3 years ago
Actually, your right! Have you heard her Thais recording from the 70s where she sounds drunk?
Dymension 3 years ago
Now that she is dead people have come to understand how underrated she was ! People spoke of her being a RCA VICTOR favourite, of ruining her career. Mere ENVY ! She was so beautiful, so feminine, such a passionate, natural and great artist. Maybe if she had had THIS ACCEPTANCE she would have been alive. Sometime some kind of cruel gay opera lovers can help a singer...die !
Greatfan 3 years ago
Are you drunk ? Anna Moffo was a superstar and she had a long life and well lived, she was 73 when she died and she lived with much intensity, the was diva at the Metropolitan, she recorded many opera recordings, such a superstar career..SO for what you said a singer like Magda Olivero with her provincial career should have died 50 years ago!
fleville 3 years ago
i don't see the point in your mentioning'gay' opera lovers...i'm gay and i LOVE her, she's great and beautifully feminine and sensual; nothing against that, is there???? choose your words or at least specify them.
janraffaello 3 years ago
Are you blaming "gay opera lovers" for her death. Sir you are clearly a bigot.
vkaminsky 3 years ago
Her voice is amazingly beautiful! Her Gilda (Rigoletto)is my second favorite after Callas.
Johnny1206 3 years ago
Thanks for posting this! This is very rare.
Anna's voice had no issues with support. Any singer knows how to support their voice, and have enough breath. She had a terrible vocal technical teaching, and the sad part is that once it was figured out, it was too late.
This video is an example of terrible technique.
Again I love Anna Moffo, don't get me wrong.
I just wonder how she would have sounded, with the correct teacher in the early years?
Brent
BrentAudi 4 years ago
What exactly was wrong with her technique? She sang coloratura and lyric soprano roles and these role require a very developped technique. The thing about Anna Moffo is, that she overworked her voice with too heavy (Butterfly) and too many roles in her career.
Klassizismus 4 years ago
I once knew a contralto who studied with Euphemia Giannini Gregory at the Curtis Institute at the same time as Moffo (and had no vocal problems that I am aware of, but had also stopped singing except for cabaret by the time I knew her), and she said that even back then Moffo had a reputation for "pushing" too hard. So it's unclear who's to blame. A Wikipedia search reveals that Judith Blegen also studied with EGG, however, and as I recall she had a similar comet-like, crash-and-burn career.
shivastotravali 3 years ago
Judith Blegen "comet-like, crash and burn career"? Nah, she sang a fairly long time. Those high, light sopranos generally don't last but so long anyway. She may not have been at the Met for so long but I saw her after her hay-day and she could still sing pretty damn good
craigwalters 3 years ago
Oh good, I'm glad to hear it. She was certainly the coloratura of choice at the Met for a while, then just seemed to disappear completely. I do remember watching Great Performances broadcasts wondering how she could sing so well with her mouth shaking so violently. :-)
shivastotravali 3 years ago
After the Met, she continued her career at a more regional level for some years. I think much the same became of a lot of singers like Carol Vaness. Not singing at the Met doesn't necessarily mean 'not singing at all'
craigwalters 3 years ago
Wow! What a moving and enchanting interpretation. I love the slightly dry middle of hers, it's quite "sensual". And she sings with beautiful technique and so much emotion. This is an excellent proof of Moffo's amazing talent, vocally and interpretively (and, of course, of her great looks). Thanks!
Homoclassicus 4 years ago
Just lovely, thank you onegin for posting this. I love Anna Moffo such warmth to her voice even on a bad day she has a better sound and heart than some of the so called "divas" of today!!
berlinman46 4 years ago 2
This is very interesting. I posted the recording she made in '75, and this one appears to be much earlier. And yet, she's already exhibiting the support problems that would mar her singing many years later. It's still gorgeous singing, the ends of phrases are a little iffy.
sschimel 4 years ago
Onegin, you find everything! Tenormd and mrrk said it all. Fantastic!
patjan92 4 years ago
Anna Moffo was great! Beauty and voice. Marilyn who??
tenornmd 4 years ago 2
Stunning. Tnak you for posting this gem.
mrrk 4 years ago