Anna
Maria Alberghetti is a consummate performer. Her pure, wondrous sound has
been heralded in America since her Carnegie Hall Debut at the age of 13.
Her appearances on concert stages in a dazzling one-woman show cause her to be a
sought after artist in both cabaret and with the world’s finest symphony
orchestras.
Her talents as an actress have captured the imaginations and interest of
audiences everywhere and earned her Broadway’s coveted Antoinette Perry (Tony)
Award for Best Actress In a Musical for the now classic “Carnival.”
Prior to "Friends and Family," Anna Maria Alberghetti filmed “The
Whole Shebang” with Stanley Tucci, Bridget Fonda, Giancarlo Gianinni, and
Talia Shire. Her other feature films include co-starring roles in “Here
Comes The Groom” with Bing Crosby, “Cinderfella” with Jerry Lewis,
“10,000 Bedrooms” with Dean Martin, “The Stars Are Shining” with
Rosemary Clooney, “The Last Command” with Sterling Hayden, and “The
Medium” with the Metropolitan Opera’s great Lauritz Melchoir.
Anna was born in Pesaro, Italy and as the daughter of a concertmaster father and
a pianist mother, she began singing professionally at the age of six with a 100
piece orchestra on the Isle of Rhodes. “I cannot remember a time when
music was not part of my life,” Anna Maria recalls today. “My father
sang with a number of famous opera companies, including La Scala and he was
concertmaster for the Rome Opera Company,” she explains. Her father was
also her only vocal instructor.
The tragedy of World War II forced the Alberghettis from their homeland and
after a tour of Europe, Anna’s parents brought her to America where she
debuted at Carnegie Hall. The New York Times marveled at the child’s
extraordinary talent and “some of the purest, loveliest sounds that have ever
been heard.” Success with the New York Philharmonic and other
distinguished symphonies followed, paving the way for a career as soloist with
outstanding orchestras that still flourish today.
Ed Sullivan introduced Anna Maria to television audiences and the public has
remained enchanted with her ever since. She appeared with Sullivan a
record 53 times. As she matured, the beautiful girl with the angelic voice
made her mark in every area of entertainment.
In addition to her Tony winning performance in “Carnival,” Anna Maria has
also given illustrious performances in “West Side Story,” “The Sound of
Music,” “Cabaret,” “Camelot,” “Fanny,” “Most Happy Fella,”
“The Boyfriend,” “The Student Prince,” “Side By Sondheim,” and
recently has toured in the Kopit-Yeston production of “Phantom.”
Her recording career has included performances for Capitol Records, Columbia
Records, Mercury Records and MGM Records.
In 1964, Anna married director/producer, Claudio Guzman. During the
ten-year marriage she gave birth to two daughters, Alexandra and Pilar, and her
focus shifted from her career to the demands of parenthood. Today, as her
daughters have begun their own careers, Anna is again pursuing the profession
she knows and loves.
“When you’ve been fortunate enough to have a career as a child, there are
great advantages and great responsibilities. I accomplished so many things
during the early days of my career that I never felt there was sacrifice in
being home with my children. Rather, there was joy,” she explains.
Returning to the theatre, as well as to the concert and lecture stage today, she
is warmed by the affection of a public, which has maintained an interest in her
talent and beauty since childhood. “One great advantage of working all
your life is that people are wonderful,” she says. “They remember and
enjoy from so many points of view. Some people have attended a concert,
others were touched by a lecture or one of my films has entertained them.
I gained an entirely new audience during the years I was associated with the
Good Seasons television commercials. It’s satisfying to feel special and
familiar to so many people.”
Today, Anna is busy with an international schedule of concerts, lectures, and
personal appearances.
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The daughter of Italian musicians, soprano Anna
Maria Alberghetti was singing on the European concert circuit at the age of 12.
Two years later, she made an impressive debut at Carnegie Hall. Hoping to
promote Anna as "the new Deanna Durbin," Paramount pictures signed her
to a film contract. While her official movie debut was in the independently
produced filmed opera The Medium (1950), Anna was given a big-guns
"introducing" buildup for her first Paramount effort, Frank Capra's Here
Comes the Groom (1951). She followed this with a leading role in the
celebrity-studded The Stars are Singing (1952), a genial musical based
loosely on Anna's real-life rise to prominence. Few of her subsequent Paramount
films were truly worthy of her talents; she left Hollywood, never to return,
after surviving Jerry Lewis in Cinderfella
(1960). Anna Maria Alberghetti then launched her Broadway career in the hit
musical Carnival (1961), adapted from the 1953 Leslie Caron movie vehicle Lili
(1953).
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
