From Farm Girl to World Performer
By Deb Todd, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Ind.
May 28–The program from Holland America Cruise Line’s S.S. Maasdam is dated Dec. 31, 1964, and lists soprano Alexandra Moss and baritone Andreas Zannis among the performers.
The duo, known as "The Continentals," were in the early years of a career that spanned a quarter-century and saw them perform in exotic locales such as Athens, Monte Carlo, Bombay and Tel Aviv. Their repertoire included operettas, arias, ballads, Broadway tunes and art songs, sung in English, French, Italian and Hebrew.
"It was exciting for me … this little farm girl," recalls Alexandra Moss Zannis, stroking a red scrapbook on the coffee table in her northwest Allen County home.
With its pages of programs, playbills, photos, yellowed newspaper clippings, and letters signed by Ed Sullivan and hotel magnate Conrad Hilton, the scrapbook records a life that many dream about and few experience.
Alexandra "Gene" Moss grew up on a farm near Huntertown.
"I milked the cows and shucked the corn," she says with a laugh. "That’s a long way to performing at Carnegie Hall!"
She dreamed of being a singer. At age 15, she performed at the Elks Club, earning $15.
"My mother made me a black checked skirt with a black top, and I wore bobby sox. I sang ‘You’re Either Too Young or Too Old,’" she says and begins to sing the opening lines.
Moss studied voice locally with Dorothy Durbin and sang with WOWO radio icon Jay Gould before meeting Lyssa Bailhe, a Fort Wayne native and New York vocal coach. Bailhe encouraged her to move to New York City to study opera.
"I didn’t know I had operatic talent!" she exclaimed. On July 31, 1950, Moss arrived in New York and sub-let a small apartment in back of Carnegie Hall.
Working as a secretary by day, she honed her craft with voice lessons, opera workshops, hours of rehearsal and instruction in languages and stage presence. In 1955, she captured the role of Musetta in "La Boheme," and, in 1957, she signed with the NBC Opera Touring Co. Lead roles in "Tosca" and "Madame Butterfly" followed.
"Tosca" was to change her life forever.
Andreas Zannis, a handsome Greek, was cast as Baron Scarpia. Son of Greece’s Attorney-General, Zannis rejected a career in law to study at the Academy of Music in Rome before emigrating to the United States. He sang at Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall, the famed Roxy Theatre and at the Metropolitan Opera Co.
Moss began studying with Zannis.
"I’ve been grateful all my life for Andreas. He really taught me how to sing. He was so strict!" she says with a laugh. The couple began performing together in 1960, and, in 1962, the debonair Greek and the beautiful Indiana farm girl married and embarked on a journey that took them around the world for the next 25 years.
After 33 years together, cancer claimed Andreas Zannis’ life, and Alexandra’s beautiful voice was stilled as well.
"I stopped singing …" she says. "I miss singing with Andreas. It was such a high. There’s nothing like it in your life. … With him, I was complete."
In time, the artist within her found another voice — poetry.
"The first poem I remember writing was when I was 12 years old," she recalls.
Titled "Beyond the Blue Horizon," the first stanza describes "Alcatraz" in glowing terms. When her sister hooted, "Alcatraz? That’s a prison!" Moss Zannis immediately substituted "Singapore" for the offending lyric to appease her sister.
Poetry had taken a back seat to singing, although her poem, "Memories," was published in the now-defunct Westminster Magazine’s winter 1952-53 edition. In 1999, "The Open Wound and Other Scars," her first volume of poetry, was published. The floodgates opened, and poems, faux limericks, prose and chapbooks poured onto the pages of Web sites, books and magazines.
She also experimented with short stories and oil painting.
"Anyone can pick up a brush and have fun," she says, laughing. "Look at Picasso!"
Beautifully framed oil paintings adorn her walls, mingling with photos, antiques and mementos of the Zannis’ travels.
While in Miami, Moss Zannis became active in the Association of Florida Poets. Upon returning to Fort Wayne in 2004, she joined Northeast Indiana P.O.E.T.S, where she serves as treasurer and historian.
Alexandra Moss Zannis has nothing but praise for her hometown.
"Fort Wayne has so much to offer (culturally)," she says enthusiastically. "I love to explore the art museum (Fort Wayne Museum of Art)."
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