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Anna Moffo collection

 Collection
Identifier: PPCI-MSS62

Scope and Contents

Memorabilia, programs, publicity materials, contracts, reviews, recordings, interviews, biographies, business and personal correspondence and documents, scrapbooks, degrees, honors, awards, and photographs collected and curated by coloratura soprano Anna Moffo (Voice '54) throughout her lifetime. Her operatic roles included:

  • Adina (L'elisir d'amore)
  • Amina (La Sonnambula)
  • Aida (Aida)
  • Cio-Cio San (Madama Butterfly)
  • Clara (Porgy and Bess)
  • Desdemona (Otello)
  • Elvira (I Puritani)
  • Gilda (Rigoletto)
  • Hélène (La belle Hélène)
  • Juliette (Roméo et Juliette)
  • Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi)
  • Leonora (Il Travatore)
  • Liù (Turandot)
  • Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor)
  • Luisa (Luisa Miller)
  • Magda (La Rondine)
  • Manon (Manon Lescaut)
  • Marguerite (Faust)
  • Marie (La fille du régiment)
  • Mélisande (Pelléas and Mélisande)
  • Mimi (La boheme) (American debut, 1957)
  • Nannetta (Falstaff) (La Scala debut, 1957)
  • Norina (Don Pasquale) (Spoleto debut, 1955)
  • Pamina (Die Zauberflöte)
  • Périchole (La Périchole)
  • Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus)
  • Susanna (La nozze di Figaro)
  • Thaïs (Thaïs)
  • Tosca (Tosca)
  • Violetta (La Traviata) (Met debut, 1959)
  • Zerlina (Don Giovanni)
  • Dates

    • Creation: 1932 - circa 2005

    Creator

    Biographical / Historical

    Born on 27 June 1932 in Wayne, PA, Anna Moffo was an accomplished athlete and excellent student at Radnor High School before winning a place at the Curtis Institute of Music to study voice in 1950. Following her 1954 graduation, she traveled to Italy on a Fulbright Scholarship, where, soon after, her operatic career took off after a televised appearance as Cio-Cio-San in Madame Butterfly. By the early 1960s Moffo had cemented her reputation as a leading lyric-coloratura soprano, performing at, among others, the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, Teatro di San Carlo, The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Royal Opera House. Celebrated as much for her beauty as for her voice (she was christened “La Bellisima”), Moffo dominated the operatic stage for nearly a decade, particularly in her signature role as Violetta in La Traviata. However, a grueling opera schedule coupled with weekly appearances on her namesake variety show led, in 1968, to serious injury to her voice from which she never fully recovered. After formally retiring from singing in 1983, Moffo served as a board member on the Metropolitan Opera Guild and taught master classes around the world until her death in 2006 at age 73.

    Extent

    5.43 Linear feet

    Language of Materials

    English

    Italian

    German

    French

    Related Materials

    James Shomate collection (MSS 15)

    Separated Materials

    (3) performance programs unrelated to Moffo added to approriate vertical file: Phila. Orchestra to Ormandy file; Phila. Orchestra to Steinberg file; Main Line Symphony Orchesta to Kincaid file

    Processing Information

    This collection is currently being processed. Please contact the archivist.

    Title
    Anna Moffo memorabilia (MSS 62)
    Status
    Completed
    Author
    Kristina Wilson
    Description rules
    Describing Archives: A Content Standard
    Language of description
    English
    Script of description
    Latin

    Repository Details

    Part of the Curtis Institute of Music Archives Repository

    Contact:
    1720 Locust St
    Philadelphia PA 19103 United States