Anna Moffo

American lyric-dramatic soprano Anna Moffo rose quickly to become one of the world's best-known opera singers in the 1950s and remained a leading star into the 1970s. Her parents were Nicolas Moffo and Regina (Cinti) Moffo. Anna made her singing debut at the age of seven in a school assembly with an African-American spiritual, "Mighty Like a Rose." She sang frequently in her town and surrounding regions. Possessing notable beauty to go along with her voice, she was offered a chance to audition for Hollywood. She elected music instead, winning a four-year scholarship to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her teacher there was Eugenia Giannini-Gregory. She won the Young Artists Auditions in 1955. A Fulbright Scholarship the same year enabled her to travel to Italy and study at the Accademica di Santa Cecilia in Rome with Luigi Ricci and Mercedes Llopart. To help support herself she worked as an X-ray technician and typist. She debuted on stage as Norina in Don Pasquale (Donizetti) at Spoleto. Her warm, lyric voice and full tone attracted much attention, while her slim, attractive figure and beautiful stage appearance suited her to visual media. She was engaged to sing the title role of Butterfly by television director Mario Lanfranchi. This 1956 broadcast made her an instant star in Italy, and gained her international fame. She sang other Italian television opera productions, including Lucia di Lammermoor and La fille du régiment). She made her French debut in 1956, singing Zerlina (Mozart's Don Giovanni) at Aix-en-Provençe. She appeared throughout Italy, and debuted at Teatro alla Scala in Falstaff in 1957. She first appeared in America as Mimi in La Bohème at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. In the same year she married Lanfranchi. On November 14, 1959...