Mozart Arias

The American lyric soprano Anna Moffo, who retired in the mid-'70s (and is still very much alive), was a beautiful woman, a good actress, and an intelligent, sensitive singer, and she possessed natural charm. The voice was a pure lyric, with a succulent bloom at the top, good coloratura ability (she was a successful Lucia and Gilda), and a sometimes useful upper extension. Moffo was a fine communicator as well--all of which is evident on this CD, which was recorded in her early prime (in 1958). The Figaro excerpts show her as a boyish, impetuous Cherubino and a telling, in-control-and-sensuous Susanna, while Despina's two arias from Cosi give us something a bit sassier--just as it should be. Moffo's "Ach ich liebte" from Abduction is acrobatically valid as well as poised. Zerlina's arias vary between coy and knowing--again just the right combination. "Ach ich fühls" starts out a bit flat; Moffo and her unworthy (throughout) conductor Alceo Galliera indulge in some simply wrong rubato, but the last third of the aria, with its melting, high pianissimi, is a knockout. The aria from Il re pastore is beautifully sung--trills and all--and so is the concert aria "Misera, dove son?" The two soprano solos from Mozart's Great Mass (K. 427) find Moffo stretching for the low notes, albeit never unattractively, but they, and the "Alleluia" from "Exsultate, jubilate" are suitably virtuosic. This CD is a real pleasure. Highly recommended. -- Robert Levine