Zinka Milanov
Zinka Milanov (born May 17, 1906 in Zagreb , Austria-Hungary , † May 30, 1989 in New York , NY ) was a Croatian - American opera singer (soprano) . She sang mainly for the Metropolitan Opera in New York , but also at the Salzburg Festival and the Vienna State Opera . Zinka Milanov had a clear, expressive and sonorous voice; Her legato art and her delicate pianissimo tones were particularly praised .
Life
Zinka Milanov was born as Zinka Kunc. She studied at the Music Academy in Zagreb, received further lessons in Milan and Berlin and completed her training with her brother, the pianist and composer Božidar Kunc .
In October 1927 she made her debut as Leonora in Verdi's Il trovatore in Ljubljana and a few weeks later as Marguerite in Gounod's Faust in her hometown. She stayed there until 1935. Occasional appearances abroad led to an engagement at the German Theater in Prague in 1936/37 (there she sang in Aida for the first time in March 1937 with guest Jussi Björling , her frequent partner in later years on the stage of MET and in the studio). In 1937 she got her second marriage: her husband was the actor Predrag Milanov (1899–1947). She kept his last name when she married the Yugoslav general and diplomat Ljubomir Ilić in 1947.
The international breakthrough came in 1937 with a guest performance at the Vienna State Opera (conductor: Bruno Walter ), a performance of Verdi's Messa da Requiem under Arturo Toscanini (on the recommendation of Bruno Walter) at the Salzburg Festival and the debut at the MET (again as Troubadour Leonora). For almost 30 years she was one of the big stars of the house. Only in the years 1941/42 and 1947/49 did it not appear here. She sang in almost 300 performances at the house, not counting those on the annual tours in the USA. During this time she also made guest appearances at other opera houses, such as in Chicago and San Francisco and in 1956/57 at the Covent Garden Opera in London.
Their main roles were Aida, Troubadour Leonora, masked ball -Amelia, Tosca , Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni .
On April 13, 1966, she took her stage farewell at the MET in Andrea Chénier by Umberto Giordano . She then worked as a singing teacher in New York.
literature
- Susan Blyth-Schofield, in: Music in Past and Present , 2nd Edition, Person Part Volume 12, 2004 ( ISBN 3-7618-1122-5 ), Sp. 198f
Web links
- Sound carrier by Zinka Milanov in the catalog of the German National Library
- Zinka Milanov ( Memento from October 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ During these two seasons, Daniza Ilitsch , who was signed to the Met in 1946, was to sang her roles , but who then returned to Vienna in the spring of 1948 after a catastrophic broken voice.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Milanov, Zinka |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Yugoslav-American opera singer (soprano) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 17, 1906 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Zagreb , Austria-Hungary |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 30, 1989 |
| Place of death | New York , NY |