Anna Moffo (June 27, 1932 – March 9, 2006) was an Italian-American opera singer and one of the leading lyric-coloratura sopranos of her generation. She possessed a warm and radiant voice of considerable range and agility, and was an affecting singing-actress of great physical beauty^{[neutrality is disputed]}.

Biography[link]

She was born in Wayne, Pennsylvania to Italian parents, Nicola Moffo (a shoemaker) and his wife Regina Cinti. After graduating from Radnor High School, she turned down an offer to go to Hollywood and went instead to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where she studied with Eufemia Giannini-Gregory, sister of soprano Dusolina Giannini. In 1954, on a Fulbright Program scholarship, she left for Italy to complete her studies at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome where she was a pupil of Mercedes Llopart and Luigi Ricci. Moffo made her official operatic debut in 1955 in Spoleto as Norina in Don Pasquale.

Anna Moffo (right) with Janet Cox-Rearick Waldman (left) at a cafe in Rome in 1954, when both were Fulbright Fellows in Italy

Shortly after, still virtually unknown and little experienced, she was offered the challenging role of Cio-Cio-San in an Italian television (RAI) production of Madama Butterfly. The telecast aired on January 24, 1956, and made Moffo an overnight sensation throughout Italy. Offers quickly followed and she appeared in two other television productions that same year, as Nannetta in Falstaff and as Amina in La Sonnambula. She appeared as Zerlina in Don Giovanni, at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and made her recording debut for EMI as Nannetta (Falstaff) under Herbert von Karajan, and as Musetta in La Bohème with Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano and Rolando Panerai. The following year (1957) saw her debut at the Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg Festival, at La Scala in Milan and the Teatro San Carlo in Naples.

Moffo returned to America for her debut there, as Mimì in La Bohème next to Jussi Björling's Rodolfo, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago on October 16, 1957. Her Metropolitan Opera of New York debut took place on November 14, 1959 as Violetta in La traviata, a part that would quickly become her signature role. She performed at The Metropolitan Opera for seventeen seasons in roles such as Lucia, Gilda, Adina, Mimi, Liù, Nedda, Pamina, Marguerite, Juliette, Manon, Mélisande, Périchole, the four heroines of Les contes d'Hoffmann, etc.

Moffo was also invited at the San Francisco Opera where she made her debut as Amina on October 1, 1960. During that period she also made several appearances on American television, while enjoying a successful international career singing at most major opera houses around the world (Stockholm, Berlin, Monte Carlo, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, etc.). She made her debut at the Royal Opera House in London, as Gilda, in a Franco Zeffirelli production of Rigoletto, in 1964.

In the late 1950s, she recorded Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, opposite Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Giuseppe Taddei, conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini, and recitals of Mozart arias and coloratura arias with EMI, and then became an exclusive artist with RCA Victor with whom she recorded most of her best operatic roles.

The grave of Anna Moffo Sarnoff in Kensico Cemetery

Moffo remained particularly popular in Italy and performed there regularly. She hosted a program on Italian television "The Anna Moffo Show" (two series: the first in 1964; the second in 1967) and was voted one of the ten most beautiful women in Italy. She appeared in film versions of La traviata (1968) and Lucia di Lammermoor (1971), both produced (with the Italian TV director Sandro Bolchi) and directed by her first husband Mario Lanfranchi, as well as a few non-operatic films. In the early 1970s, she began appearing on German television and in operetta films such as Die Csárdásfürstin and Die schöne Galathee. She also recorded with Eurodisc the title roles in Carmen and Iphigenie in Aulis, as well as the role of Hansel in Hänsel und Gretel.

Such a heavy workload however led to physical exhaustion and a serious vocal-breakdown in 1974, from which she never fully recovered. Although she was able to resume her career in 1976, she appeared only sporadically. Her last appearance at the Met was during the 1983 Centennial celebrations, where she sang the Sigmund Romberg duet "Will You Remember?" with Robert Merrill. After retiring from singing Moffo remained active in the opera community as a Board Member of the Metropolitan Opera Guild and by hosting several tributes and giving occasional masterclasses.

Moffo was married twice, first to stage and film director Mario Lanfranchi, on December 8, 1957. The couple divorced in 1972. Her second marriage was to RCA executive Robert Sarnoff, on November 14, 1974. Sarnoff died on February 22, 1997.

Anna Moffo spent the last years of her life in New York City, where she died of a stroke at age 73, following a decade-long battle with breast cancer. She is interred with Sarnoff at Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York.

Selected RCA recordings[link]

• 1957 - Puccini - Madama Butterfly - Anna Moffo, Cesare Valletti, Rosalind Elias, Renato Cesari - Rome Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf.

• 1960 - Anna Moffo - Arias from Faust, La bohème, Dinorah, Carmen, Semiramide, Turandot, Lakmé - Rome Opera Orchestra, Tullio Serafin.

• 1960 - Verdi - La traviata - Anna Moffo, Richard Tucker, Robert Merrill - Rome Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Fernando Previtali.

• 1961 - Puccini - La bohème - Anna Moffo, Richard Tucker, Mary Costa, Robert Merrill, Giorgio Tozzi, Philip Maero - Rome Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf.

• 1962 - Pergolesi - La serva padrona - Anna Moffo, Paolo Montarsolo - Rome Philharmonic Orchestra, Franco Ferrara

• 1962 - Recital of Verdi Heroines - The RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra, Franco Ferrara

• 1963 - Verdi - Rigoletto - Robert Merrill, Anna Moffo, Alfredo Kraus, Rosalind Elias, Ezio Flagello - The RCA Italiana Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Georg Solti.

• 1963 - Puccini - Manon Lescaut (Highlights) - Anna Moffo, Flaviano Labò, Robert Kerns - The RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra and Chorus, René Leibowitz.

• 1963 - Massenet - Manon (Highlights) - Anna Moffo, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Robert Kerns - The RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra and Chorus, René Leibowitz.

• 1964 - Canteloube - Songs of the Auvergne: Bailero - Anna Moffo - American Symphony Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski

• 1964 - Verdi - Luisa Miller - Anna Moffo, Carlo Bergonzi, Shirley Verrett, Cornell MacNeil, Giorgio Tozzi, Ezio Flagello - The RCA Italiana Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Fausto Cleva.

• 1965 - Gluck - Orfeo ed Euridice - Shirley Verrett, Anna Moffo, Judith Raskin - Polyphonic Chorus of Rome, I Virtuosi di Roma, Renato Fasano.

• 1965 - Donizetti - Lucia di Lammermoor - Anna Moffo, Carlo Bergonzi, Mario Sereni, Ezio Flagello - The RCA Italiana Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Georges Prêtre.

• 1966 - Puccini - La Rondine - Anna Moffo, Daniele Barioni, Graziella Sciutti, Piero de Palma, Mario Sereni - The RCA Italiana Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli.

• 1974 - Massenet - Thais - Anna Moffo, Gabriel Bacquier, José Carreras - Ambrosian Opera Chorus, New Philarmonia Orchestra, Julius Rudel.

• 1976 - Montemezzi - L'Amore dei tre re - Anna Moffo, Plácido Domingo, Pablo Elvira, Cesare Siepi - Ambrosian Opera Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra, Nello Santi.

Sources[link]

• The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia, edited by David Hamilton, (Simon and Schuster, New York 1987). ISBN 0-671-61732-X

• The Metropolitan Opera Guide to recorded Opera, edited by Paul Gruber, (W.W. Norton & Company, 1993). ISBN 0-393-03444-5
• Anna Moffo: una carriera italo-americana", edited by Mario G.Genesi(Orion Editions,Borgonovo V.T.,2002,496 pages.The only existing biography of the "diva" complete with discography, chronology,filmography,with many photos).

External links[link]

• Opera News obituary
• Anna Moffo at Find a Grave
• Anna Moffo – The Internet Movie Database.

Emilie Marie Baroness von Bach (b. 1 March 1896, d. 26 February 1978) was an Austrian pianist, violinist, composer and artist.

Life[link]

Marie Bach was born in Vienna, Austria, the daughter of Robert Bonaventura Michael Wenzel von Bach and his wife Eleonore Josepha Maria Theresia Auguste, Baroness von Bach. When Marie was one year old, the family moved to the castle Leesdorf near Baden. Marie took piano lessons at the Musikschule Grimm in Baden and at the age of fourteen began violin lessons.^[1]

In 1914 she began to compose her first prelude, which she followed with songs and other piano pieces. She attended the Vienna Academy of Music and Performing Arts studying music theory and composition with Joseph Marx and conducting with Jvan G. Boutnikoff. She made her debut as a composer in 1921 with Narrenlieder für Tenor und Orchester, a song cycle which was later printed by Schott in Vienna. She continued to be successful as a composer, but after the death of her father, the family had financial difficulties.

Bach met the Italian painter Arturo Ciacelli in 1940 and went with him to Italy where she became interested in painting. After she began to exhibit, her paintings became almost more successful than her compositions. Ciacelli died in 1966 and for a while Bach gave up creative endeavors, but eventually began to compose again. She received a gold medal for composition in 1962 and was awarded the title of professor in 1976.^[2]

Bach died in Vienna of smoke inhalation. Her papers are housed in the City Hall Library in Vienna.^[3]

Works[link]

Selected works include:

• Prelude Warum? for piano (1914/15)
• Silhouetten, ballet suite
• Narrenlieder für Tenor und Orchester (1921)
• Sonate für Cello und Klavier (1924)
• Klavierquintett (1927/28)
• Klavierquartett
• Lieder für Stimme und Orchester
• Kammermusik und Orchesterwerke

References[link]

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Richard Tucker (August 28, 1913 – January 8, 1975) was an American operatic tenor.

Early life[link]

Tucker was born Rivn (Rubin) Ticker in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Romanian Jewish parents from Bessarabia.^[3][4] His father, Shmul (Sam) Ticker, and mother Fanya-Tsipa (Fanny) Ticker had already adopted the surname "Tucker" by the time their son entered first grade. His musical aptitude was discovered early, and was nurtured under the tutelage of Samuel Weisser at the Tifereth Israel synagogue in lower Manhattan. As a teenager, Tucker's interests alternated between athletics, at which he excelled during his high-school years, and singing for weddings and bar mitzvahs as a cantorial student. Eventually, he progressed from a part-time cantor at Temple Emanuel in Passaic, New Jersey, to full-time cantorships at Temple Adath Israel in the Bronx and, in June 1943, at the large and prestigious Brooklyn Jewish Center. Until then, Tucker's income derived mainly from his weekly commissions as a salesman for the Reliable Silk Company, in Manhattan's garment district.

On February 11, 1936, Tucker married Sara Perelmuth, the youngest child (and only daughter) of Levi and Anna Perelmuth, proprietors of the Grand Mansion, a kosher banquet hall in Manhattan's Lower East Side. At the time of Tucker's wedding to their daughter, the Perelmuths' musically-gifted eldest son, Yakob, had progressed from a part-time jazz violinist and lyric tenor vocalist to a national radio star who had already set his sights on an operatic career. Under the management of Sol Hurok, the eldest of the Perelmuth offspring, now renamed Jan Peerce, reached his goal when the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera Company, Edward Johnson, offered him a contract after an impressive audition. When Peerce made his much-acclaimed debut at the Met on November 29, 1941, his sister and her new husband were living with Peerce's parents while Tucker was trying to make a success as the sole proprietor (and only employee) of a silk-lining sales business while also officiating at Temple Adath Israel in the Bronx.^[5]

Operatic career[link]

Although Peerce remained skeptical of Tucker's ability and did not overtly encourage his operatic ambitions (which led, unfortunately, to a permanent rift between the two brothers-in-law and their families), Peerce did play a role in introducing Tucker to conductor and arranger Zavel Zilberts, who coached Tucker until he came to the attention of Paul Althouse, a notable tenor whose operatic career had begun during the last years of Enrico Caruso's long reign at the Met. Althouse became Tucker's only teacher. In a rare moment of the pupil disregarding the teacher's advice, Tucker entered the Metropolitan Opera "Auditions of the Air" in 1941, but did not win. When Met general manager Edward Johnson came unannounced to the Brooklyn Jewish Center to hear Tucker sing, however, Johnson offered the tenor another audition and soon awarded him a contract. On January 25, 1945, under the baton of Emil Cooper, Tucker made his debut as Enzo in La Gioconda. The debut, one of the most successful in the annals of the Met,^[6] heralded Tucker's 30-year career as the leading American tenor of the postwar era.

As the Duke in Rigoletto, 1971.

Two years after his Metropolitan debut, Tucker was invited to reprise his success in La Gioconda at the cavernous amphitheater in Verona, Italy, for which the retired tenor and Verona native, Giovanni Zenatello, had also engaged a young, overweight, unknown Greek-American soprano named Maria Callas. Contemporary reviews of the 1947 Verona performances of La Gioconda verify that Tucker's success considerably surpassed Callas's, a fact overshadowed by the soprano's eventual worldwide acclaim.^{[citation needed]} Two years later, in 1949, Tucker's rapidly ascending career was confirmed when Arturo Toscanini, the most celebrated Italian conductor of the twentieth century, engaged Tucker to sing the role of Radames for the NBC simulcasts of a complete performance of Aida opposite Herva Nelli in the title role, an event heard and seen on radio and television, and eventually released on LP, CD, VHS, and DVD. This was the first full opera performance ever broadcast on national television.^{[citation needed]}

In the ensuing years, Tucker's ample lyric voice evolved into a lirico-spinto voice of near-dramatic proportions. If his signature stylistic devices, especially his affection for Italianate sobs, were not always lauded by the critics, the distinctive timbre of his ringing voice, his unfailingly secure technique, impeccable diction, and native-sounding pronunciation were universally acclaimed in every role he undertook.^{[citation needed]} A profusion of legendary tenors — including Jussi Björling, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Mario del Monaco and, eventually, Jan Peerce) came and went during the years in which (Sir) Rudolf Bing led the Metropolitan. Tucker remained a dominant tenor and steadily took on new challenges. Although an indifferent actor throughout most of his career, Tucker made a strong dramatic impression with veteran critics when he reconceived the role of Canio in Pagliacci under the direction of Franco Zeffirelli in January 1970. The tenor was nearly 60 years old at the time.

Before and after each Metropolitan Opera season, Tucker appeared on concert stages through the U.S. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, his appearances in a series of "Puccini Night" open-air concerts at the landmark Lewisohn Stadium in New York City, under the direction of Alfredo Antonini, often attracted audiences of over 13,000 enthusiastic guests.^{[7][8][9][10]} Throughout his opera career, Tucker also officiated as a cantor during Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and other sacred events in the Jewish liturgical calendar. A devoted but strict patriarch, Tucker oversaw the religious development of his three sons (Berel [Barry] Tucker, b. 1938; David N. Tucker, M.D., b. 1941; and Henry R. Tucker, b. 1946), and arranged for them to sing with him on a popular television program hosted by Sam Levenson in the early 1950s.

Tucker had a long-running contract with Columbia Records, and eventually recorded for RCA Victor as well.^{[citation needed]} But, measured against the sheer length of his career, Tucker's commercial recordings are proportionately sparse and inadequately convey the power and roundness of his voice, according to most of his artistic colleagues.^{[attribution needed]} Many of his commercial recordings, as well as private recordings of his concerts and broadcast performances, have been digitally remastered and are available in CD and online downloadable formats. A number of his national television appearances on "'The Voice of Firestone'" and "'The Bell Telephone Hour'" were preserved in kinescope and videotape form, and have been reissued in VHS and DVD format. Regrettably, a complete video performance of the tenor's searing portrayal of Canio in the Zeffirelli production of Pagliacci, which was to be paired with Cavalleria rusticana featuring Tucker's friend and tenor colleague Franco Corelli as Turiddu, was never telecast and has not been issued commercially, for legal reasons.

Although Tucker's well-crafted public image was that of a competitive, overwhelmingly self-confident performer, his offstage demeanor was that of an inherently private but unfailingly considerate man, especially where fans and colleagues were concerned. Never prone to looking back upon his career, Tucker always lived in the moment and maintained a boyish outlook on life.^{[attribution needed]} He also displayed a propensity for playing pranks on some of his fellow singers, often provoking a smile at some inappropriate moment in a performance. Once, during a broadcast of La forza del destino with baritone Robert Merrill, Tucker sneaked a nude photograph into a small trunk that Merrill opened onstage. In later years, Merrill described his tenor friend as "an original, right out of the pages of a Damon Runyon story."^[11]

Ironically, Tucker was touring with Merrill in a national series of joint concerts when, on January 8, 1975, he died of a heart attack while resting before an evening performance in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He is the only person whose funeral has been held on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. In tribute to his legacy at the Met, the city of New York designated the park adjacent to Lincoln Center as Richard Tucker Square.

Legacy[link]

Richard Tucker monument in Lincoln Square

Shortly after his death, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation was established by his widow, sons, colleagues, and friends, "to perpetuate the memory of America's greatest tenor through projects in aid of gifted young singers." In the intervening decades, the Richard Tucker Foundation, whose annual televised concerts have been hosted by Luciano Pavarotti and other opera stars of the past and present, has consistently awarded the largest vocal-music grants and scholarships. Recipients include sopranos Renée Fleming, Deborah Voigt, tenors Richard Leech, Stephen Costello, James Valenti and other opera singers of international renown.

Audio examples[link]

• Richard Tucker in La fanciulla del West
• Renata Tebaldi and Richard Tucker in a scene from Puccini's Manon Lescaut
• Richard Tucker in operetta

References[link]

External links[link]

• Richard Tucker at the Internet Movie Database.
• Biography
• Richard Tucker Music Foundation - "Dedicated to the support and advancement of the careers of promising and talented American opera singers"
• Discography (Capon's Lists of Opera Recordings)
• History of the Tenor - Sound Clips and Narration
• Richard Tucker Square (NYC Parks Dept)

Lindsay Perigo (born 14 December 1951) is a former New Zealand television and radio broadcasting personality, founding member and first leader of the Libertarianz political party and an Objectivist organisation called Sense of Life Objectivists (SOLO).

In 1993 he quit television work, in the process denouncing TVNZ news and current affairs as "brain dead". Thereafter he returned to radio for several years, with a libertarian show on Radio Pacific and on the now defunct Radio Liberty.^[1]

Perigo is former editor of the Free Radical, a libertarian/Objectivist magazine founded by him with backing from David Henderson in 1994. Deborah Coddington, former Free Radical assistant editor, wrote a biography of Perigo entitled Politically Incorrect in 1999, which was published by Radio Pacific.^[1]

He is a noted fan of singer Mario Lanza, and wrote the foreword for Armando Cesari's Lanza biography, Mario Lanza: An American Tragedy.^[2] He has interviewed José Carreras^[3] and Luciano Pavarotti, and appeared with Dame Malvina Major in a television tribute to Pavarotti in September 2007.^[4]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Lindsay Perigo's C.V.
• Libertarianz Party website
• SOLO website
• Free Radical magazine website