Anna Moffo’s parents were Italian, her father a shoemaker. As a child she sang frequently in her home town and surrounding region; and possessing both beauty and a good voice, was offered the chance to audition for Hollywood. Moffo however chose music instead, winning a scholarship to study at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where she became a fully-rounded musician, studying the piano and viola as well as voice with Eufemia Giannini-Gregory (sister of soprano Dusolina Giannini).

In 1954 Moffo won a Fulbright scholarship to train for opera at the Accademia de Santa Cecilia in Rome. Here she was a pupil of Mercedes Llopart and Luigi Ricci and made her operatic debut in 1955 as Norina / Don Pasquale at the Spoleto Festival. Soon afterw...