Anna

The first time I ever saw Anna was in the film of La Serva Padrona which my father had borrowed from the library. Opera was something I liked well enough but not yet a passion, her singing was not something I took too much notice of one way or the other but all the same, the impression which she left was indelible. She was arrestingly beautiful, an irresistible performer, charming, radiant, unforgettable. When I did devote myself to opera, hers was a name I had in mind from the first. One afternoon in Melbourne I decided it was high time I listened to her again, for the first time since that Serva Padrona. Two or three seconds of an online sample from an English language Fledermaus hit me in a way that, in those early days, I'd never been hit before. The other opera-singing loves of my life had been built-in since childhood, part of my upbringing. Anna was the first I discovered and fell for all on my own.

Only Anna could ever sound like Anna, that candle-lit radiance and sensuality unmistakeable. She is a Susanna par excellence, a ravishing Rosalinde; her Violetta, which I've heard only in bad sound on a live Opera d'Oro release, is and shall remain the Violetta of my life - her "Addio del passato", and the gut-wrenching cry of "È tardi!' which precedes it, have spoilt me for all others.

I've never immersed myself in her biography or discography, and made the decision early not to hear or to learn anything of her decline. She has lived for me in those relatively few recordings I own. And that's where she'll continue to live, for ever and ever, and I'll love her just as long. Addio, Anna - but this isn't really goodbye.

Comments

[Barbara]

Beautiful.

[Michael Gray]

Try Roberta Peters - Amazing singer, had a good career at the Met with many singers including Jussi and Merrill. I have a copy of her Rigoletto which is incredible - Si! Vendetta is just the most MAGNIFICENT recording I have ever heard.

[Patrick]

Sarah, a wonderful tribute! She was my operatic first love.

[Kathryn Boussemart]

On Anna Moffo's recording of La Traviata, her phrasing of the phrase "Lui solo, amar vogl'io" in the duet with Robert Merrill is perfection. It says true love to me.