REVIEWS

On this page you'll find reviews of albums (CDs) on which Anna Moffo makes an appearance.  I have all of these albums and have listened to them all many times, but I am NOT a professional reviewer.  These are my opinions only.  Reviews are out of five stars.

***** = excellent
**** = very good
*** = good
** = fair
* = poor

THE SOLO ALBUMS
1. LA BELLISSIMA  **** 1/2
©1990, EMI
Chances are, if you're a true Anna Moffo fan, you have this album.  It's the only one of her "solo" albums that currently has a wide release.  It contains the recording of Musetta's Waltz that, according to the liner notes, "first brought Moffo to record collectors' attention" or something, then six Mozart arias, and finally six coloratura arias.  The selections were all recorded from 1956-1959.  Her Musetta is good but not great, and the Mozart arias, with the exceptions of "Ach, ich fühl's" and "Allelujah," are a little boring.  But "Ach, ich fühl's" is beautiful, and illustrates Moffo's skill of "floating" on the high notes.  The coloratura arias are wonderful, particularly "Sempre libera" from Traviata and "Caro nome" from Rigoletto.  The quality of the recording is very good; you would never guess that it was recorded so long ago.

2. MET LEGENDS: ANNA MOFFO ****
©1997, Metropolitan Opera Guild
This collection of arias is only available directly from the Metropolitan Opera, so it's difficult to get.  But it's worth it.  The quality of the recordings is similar to La Bellissima, although the latter is slightly better.  The liner notes are very detailed and give the translations of each aria, something that La Bellissima didn't do.  The songs, however, as in La Bellissima, are a little boring towards the beginning.  It opens with a Mozart aria that nobody's ever heard of and with good reason.  It then redeems itself by including the same recording of "Ach, ich fühl's" as La Bellissima, but then it gets a little boring again.  The highlights of the recording are "Come in quest'ora bruna" from Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, "Si, mi chiamano Mimì" from Puccini's La Bohème, and Liù's two arias from Turandot.  An interesting piece to include is "Au jardin Colin s'en vint" from Massenet's Le Portrait de Manon which was, as an opera, a complete failure.  The aria is nice, though.  I don't quite understand why they included "Ah, dite alla giovine" from La Traviata and "Ore dolce e divine" from La Rondine.  Wouldn't it have been better, if they were going to use those two operas, to include "Sempre Libera" or "Addio del passato" from Traviata and "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta" from Rondine?  Oh well--the quality is good and the songs are, for the most part, pleasant.  And of course she sings beautifully.

3. ANNA MOFFO (THE EARLY YEARS) ****
©Legatto Classics
If I hadn't deducted a point for the terrible quality of the recording of most of the songs, this would be a five star album.  The best song, by far, is the "Willow Song" from Verdi's Otello, but every song on the album is excellent.  This album shows off her ability to sing almost anything, and better than most people.  One of my favorites after the "Willow Song" is "Son vergin vezzosa" from Bellini's I Puritani which I've never heard before.  Unfortunately, something must be said about the bad recordings--the album was re-issued before Dolby was around.  Someone should re-reissue this in ADD instead of AAD because it's worth it.

4. CANTELOUBE: SONGS OF THE AUVERGNE, ET. AL ----- MOFFO/STOKOWSKI *****
©1965 RCA Victor
By far, Anna Moffo sounds best singing these types of songs--not completely operatic but definitely classical.  This is, in my opinion, her best album.  I wasn't exactly sure what to call it because it doesn't have a title like most albums.  But every Moffo fan should own it--and get it quickly before it goes out of print!  From the power of "L'antouèno" to the pure beauty of "Pastourelle," "Bailero," and "Brezairola" to the seductive quality of Villa-Lobos's "Aria (Cantilena)," Moffo makes it difficult to listen to this album without being caught in it's spell.  But the song that stands out above the others is definitely Rachmaninov's "Vocalise."  Leopold Stokowski, in the liner notes, says that Rachmaninov wrote the song as a lament for the Russia that he once knew, before World War I, and the realization that he could never really return to his beloved childhood country.  It can also be taken as a lament for all of our lost pasts, roads not taken, and doors closed to us forever.  Moffo certainly sings it as such--the melancholy, beautiful tone of her voice is like nothing I've ever heard before, and it makes one forget about how skillfully she is singing and how much of an effort she has to make to produce such beautiful sounds.  She is not straining one bit during the entire song, but still manages to "float" her high notes and even sing whole 24-second passages in one breath so as not to interrupt the flow of the song.  The other versions of this song that I've heard, such as that of Natalie Dessay, an unbelievably talented coloratura with a beautiful tone as well, don't even begin to compare with Moffo's.  Anna Moffo's version of "Vocalise" is also available on a couple of CD's of Rachmaninov's music.

THE OPERAS
1. LA TRAVIATA ---- GIUSEPPE VERDI
MOFFO/TUCKER/MERRILL ****
©1997, 1993, 1961 RCA Victor (recorded in 1961)
Moffo is the perfect Violetta--able to be a coloratura one act and then switch to lyric, then back again.  Richard Tucker is a so-so Alfredo and Robert Merrill makes a good Gérmont père.  "Sempre Libera" and "Addio del passato" stand out in my mind as being incredible.  Unfortunately, the overall quality of the recording keeps this from earning the five stars I would normally give it.  I can't think of a Violetta who even comes close, although Maria Callas was very good in the role as well.  But Moffo's voice has the qualities--graceful, beautiful, sexy, flirtatious--that the ideal Violetta should have.

2. MADAMA BUTTERLY ---- GIACOMO PUCCINI
MOFFO/VALLETTI/ELIAS *****
©1988 RCA Victor (recorded in 1957)
Moffo's Cio-Cio-San is also the best I've ever heard, although Eleanor Steber was also very good.  Moffo's version does a better job in portraying Cio-Cio-San's vulnerability and innocence, particularly in "Un bel di," the most famous aria from the opera.  The recording is clear, although there are a few problems.  But not enough to bring it down a star.  The rest of the cast does well, although none of them really stand out, partly because they're not supposed to.  Rosalind Elias as Suzuki is very good.  One of the most beautiful parts of the opera is when Cio-Cio-San sings the lullaby to Dolore (the child) in the third act.

3. LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR ---- DONIZETTI
MOFFO/BERGONZI/SERENI ***1/2
©1966 RCA Victor (recorded in 1965)
I must admit I'm biased against this opera because I don't like it.  Almost everybody agrees that Anna Moffo was a fabulous Lucia, among the best Lucias in the history of opera recordings.  And she is, too--she's a good coloratura with a wonderful e''.  Carlo Bergonzi, Mario Sereni, Ezio Flagello, Corinna Vozza, and the rest of the cast are also very good.  The most famous part of the opera, and the only part I really like, is, of course, the mad scene, which Moffo was known for.  The recording quality is very good.

4. LA RONDINE ---- GIACOMO PUCCINI
MOFFO/BARIONI/SERENI/SCIUTTI **
©1967 RCA Victor (recorded in 1966)
Here's another opera that I don't like, and this time I don't even really like Anna Moffo's performance. Her voice seems a little strained here, but that might be because of the average quality of the recording.  And is there anyone on earth who is really a fan of La Rondine?  Most people haven't even heard of it--Puccini's only failure.  Maybe I'm being a little unfair, though--I don't actually DISlike the opera, and I do listen to it occasionally.  And actually Moffo's "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta" sounds very good, as does the last note of the second act, a high note (c'' maybe?  I'm not sure).  The supporting cast isn't very good, particularly Graziella Sciutti as Lisette, who seems to be squeaking rather than singing.

5. LA BOHEME ---- GIACOMO PUCCINI
MOFFO/TUCKER/MERRILL/COSTA/TOZZI *****
©1990 BMG (recorded in 1961)
Mimì is one of those roles, like Violetta and Butterfly, that seem to be written for a voice like Anna Moffo's--sweet, gentle, innocent, lovely.  And she does a wonderful job in this recording.  The recording itself isn't overly impressive--it suffers from a slight echo effect, although not as much as La Traviata.  But Moffo and all the rest of the principals do a very nice job.  Moffo sounds particularly good in Mimì's great act I aria "Si, mi chiamano Mimì."  Tucker and Merrill, as always, are wonderful, as is Mary Costa as Musetta.

6. LA FIGLIA DEL REGGIMENTO ---- DONIZETTI
MOFFO/CAMPORA/GARDINO ****
©1988 Melodram (recorded in 1960)
This is an odd one.  It's the Italian version of La Fille du Régiment plus eight bonus tracks, all live recordings of Anna Moffo singing famous arias.  Rating this album was tough because the opera performance itself deserves four stars, but I took one away for recording quality and then gave it back because I like the bonus tracks, particularly "Addio del passato" and "Caro nome."  Moffo is good as Maria, and the rest of the cast is fine except for Jolanda Gardino.

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