Edda Moser takes a rare step into Italian bel canto

THE SONGBIRD: Edda Moser was born in Berlin in 1938, the daughter of musicologist Hans Joachim Moser. She studied at the Stern Conservatory and made her debut as Kate Pinkerton in Berlin in 1962. After singing in the Würzburg Opera Chorus, she took principal roles at the opera houses in Hagen, Bielefeld, Hamburg, and Frankfurt. Moser joined the Vienna State Opera in 1971, debuting as Konstanze. She made her U.S. debut in 1968 in "Das Rheingold" at The Met. Other roles there over nine seasons included Donna Anna, Queen of the Night, Konstanze, Armida, Nedda, Musetta, and Liù. She rarely sang Italian bel canto works so this performance from a gala concert in Köln is especially interesting.

THE MUSIC: "I puritani" was Bellini's last opera. It premiered in Paris in January 1835, and Bellini died in September 1835 at the age of 33. It was tremendously successful and the opera was performed regularly throughout Europe and in New York until the early 1900s. It went mostly dormant until it caught the public's attention during the bel canto revival ignited by Maria Callas and carried forward by Joan Sutherland, Beverly Sills, Edita Gruberova, and others. Elvira is one of Bellini's most mentally delicate creatures and her mad scene is an elegant depiction of her fragile emotional state. The entire mad scene is very long (almost 20 minutes with no cuts); it has several sections and interludes and frequent interjections by other characters, so it is nearly always abridged when performed by a solo soprano in concert or recital to just the lyric aria "Qui la voce" followed by the florid cabaletta "Vien, diletto."