“I have the most beautiful voice in the world.” That was Zinka’s appraisal of her own voice. Who am I to argue with such a source? Besides, she did.
A great opera singer does what lesser singers do, only better. I can think of just two exceptions to the rule – Zinka Milanov and Giuseppe Di Stefano. These two when they were at their best did things that nobody else could.This doesn’t necessarily mean they were better than other great singers; rather they had a magical aura that distinguished them from their peers.
I’ve already written about Pippo, so I’ll concentrate on Milanov. The basic facts of her life are readily available. She debuted at the Met in 1937. She appeared there regularly for 10 years. She then returned to Europe and didn’t reemerge at the Met until early in 1951. In the interim something wondrous had happened. She had morphed from a very good soprano to a vocal marvel. She had been singing for more than 20 years and was in her mid forties when this transformation occurred.
If you listen to the recordings that she made in the 1940s you’ll hear a beautiful voice that sometimes is unsteady. There are pianissimos in alt that are not always fully supported. Her pitch is sometimes uncertain. But by 1951 her voice was under masterful control. Its tone was molten gold. Her pianissimo high notes were ethereal. They seemed to have a life of their own. They levitated through the house like aural sprites. This was a glorious voice like none before or since. Milanov’s voice stayed in this exalted state for about five years whereupon it gradually diminished until her retirement in 1966.
Her voice was ideal for the great heavy Verdi roles including both Leonoras, Aida, the two Amelias, Desdemona, as well as Ponchielli’s Gioconda. She would have been great as Elisabeth in Don Carlo, but she could never be convinced to perform it. Great as she was, she was not perfect. Forte high notes could be shrill. She had off nights. Vocal ferocity was not on her palette. She would have been foolish to attempt Abigaille. Nabucco and its like prompted Rossini to call Verdi a composer in a helmet.
Her performances as Norma show both her strength and weakness. She was on three broadcasts of the opera from the Met – two in 1944 and one in 1954 – the only soprano in Met history to appear three times as Norma on the Saturday broadcasts. The ideal Norma would have Zinka’s beauty of tone and preternatural pianissimos combined with Callas’s dramatic intensity and agility.
Fortunately, she recorded her great roles when she was at her peak. There are also numerous “live” recordings readily available. Her 1951 rendition of D’amor sull’ali rosee is arguably the greatest piece of operatic singing since the invention of the phonograph. It has to be heard to be believed. It sets an impossibly high bar for Verdi sopranos. It’s part of the complete recording of Il Trovatore that’s still in print. The recording has a dream cast – Björling, Barbieri, and Warren. Anyone with even a passing interest in opera should own it.
Two other recordings give more proof of her artistry. Pace, pace mio Dio from the last act of La Forza Del Destino features one of Milanov’s famous effects. She starts the first syllable softly, swells it, and then brings it back down again. Another vocal coup was her singing of “Ah, come io t’amo!” in the first act of Ponchielli’s La Gioconda. She floated a pianissimo high B flat and held it as she walked off stage. The Met audience typically went mad when she did this.
If Milanov and Di Stefano were in a special category, what happened when they appeared together? Alas, they did so only once – January 13, 1956. Luckily for me, I was there. It was Tito Gobbi’s Met debut in perhaps his most famous role – Baron Scarpia in Puccini’s Tosca. Di Stefano and Gobbi were brilliant both vocally and dramatically. They sounded as they do on the famous recording, also still in print, with Callas and De Sabata. Milanov was Milanov – glorious voice not much acting. She had a lot of trouble with her train. Every time she changed direction she kicked it out of her way with her heel. No matter.
I’ve heard many great sopranos, but none like Zinka. Hers was a voice for the ages. Thank God for Thomas Edison.
No doubt about it. Milanov was one of a kind. At it’s best in the early 1950’s, the sheer beauty and sound was beyond belief, especially in “La Forza del Destino”, an opera that could have been written for her. While a 1952 Met broadcast demonstrates this better than anything else, her studio 1958 recording, while recorded a bit past her prime, still raises a higher bar than could be reached by any soprano singing today. They just don’t make voices like Milanov’s anyore.
I loved her too. I do take execption to the notion that she was not an intense singer. Her performances and i saw many had passion and intensity. What made her unique among her sisters was her enduring ability to find drama but always with in the context of a beautiful vocal line. I loved her Gioconda and Norma best. In these parts she expressed a dignity and a feminity that was unmatched. Anyone wanting to hear ferocity need only listen to the 1954 In mia man alfin to sei with Penno or the Lauran Gioconda duet with Barbieri in 1953 which was broadcast and the same duet with Resnik closing night 1959. I would also call anyone attention to the Vissi D’arte now on Utube. She propels that aria each phrase growing in fervor and heat. She was a great lady and a great singer whose vocal acting were praised by the like of Modl, Rysanek, Varnay, to name but three
The most beautiful voice is in your inborn also. like the most beautiful face and sexy body
Evangeline Jayme
Zinka is great, no doubt. Her Tosca one of my favorites. But, remark HAS TO BE MADE: Her name is Zinka Kunc (Milanov being used for commerial reasons – better sound and easier to pronounce in the English speaking world, … is her husband’s last name). It would be appropriate if she is here and there mentioned as CROATIAN SOPRANO. I hope nobody finds my comment rude, but as much as we can repsect here voice today, we also should her as a person: with her name and nationality, excluding marketing tricks.
Zinka adopted her husband’s name in preference to her maiden name at the suggestion of the Met’s management. She wasn’t told why though she probably figured it out eventually. Say her maiden name aloud pronounced properly and you’ll hear why her name was altered.
Thank you! Since I am Croatian, and English is my second language I still don’t get it beside the fact that it is difficult to pronounce for the English speaking people. I would appreciate the explanation. Btw my point was not made for general public, but for smaller group of people for which I think is appropriate to use the real name of a person.
Zinka’s maiden name sounds very much like the plural of a very nasty English word for an intimate part of the female anatomy.
I have a very special place in my heart for Zinka Milanov. I own all of her studio recordings and many of her live Met broadcasts. For me, her best are the 1944 Norma, the 1952 Forza, the 1953 Gioconda, the 1954 Andrea Chenier, and the 1960 Simon Boccanegra. I also love her studio recording of Aida, on which she and Jussi Bjoerling sing the most beautiful Tomb Scene I’ve ever heard. Milanov was a very rare and beautiful artist, and her voice lives on.
Milanov was and still is my favorite dramatic soprano.
I am very fortunate indeed to have seen her several times on stage at the old Met and also as Tosca in Philadelphia. No one since she retired has even come close to that voice and her handling of it. The last soprano I really enjoyed doing some of Milanov’s roles was Gilda Cruz-Romo, a soprano I think was not given the proper respect during her hey-day…however, she was no Milanov-but then again, who is???
taste is not arguable, fortunately
i think milanov was wonderful, exceptional, and unique
however, her voice never sounds truly italian to me
perhaps because she just wasn’t
other less attractive voices, also not of italian extraction, DO sound more italian and therefore more appropriate to me
there is something about true italian morbidezza and other vocal qualities, that mere german traurigkeitor / saftigkeit or croation emotion in milanov’s case (coupled of course with technique) , just don’t quite achieve
but that’s just me… there is something that italian singing communicates and illuminates… and it is in factoften best executed by an *italian* voice…
i probably sound hard-core here… and i don’t mean to… i don’t mean to say that nilsson and bjoerling only sound good in swedish music… i just don’t think zinka is incomparable… or should be championed as THE most beautiful voice… i don’t even think there is such a thing…
she has definite qualities
but so do others
I read so many good comments about my favorite dramatic soprano in this chat that I would like to say thanks. Even I never seen her live because I was born in 1975 , 9 years after her retirement so, would had be impossible I heard Milanov at my age of 16 in 1991 for my very first time and 20 years
later she still remaining as my favorite, her second big aria from il trovatore means to me a rare and unique artistic achievement,
her pace pace mio dio in la forza has not any possible comparison and I do not think that voices
like zinka can appear in a long time. Feeling real envy of whom had the pleasure to see her in live
just wish to disagree in one respect. i think every great singer, that is singers who reach the rank of super legends, like zinka and di stefano, do things other singers can’t. that goes for callas, sills, sutherland, caballe, ponselle, horne, etc. in fact i would say, that they do things that until they have done them, haven’t quite been imagined before. sutherland’s huge top notes, sills incredibly perfect coloratura, zinka’s combination of a very large voice, with an incredibly surprising lyricism and her legendary piano singing, horne’s flexible and large ranged voice. of course there is no such thing as the best or most beautiful voice, but thank god for zinka’s ego, because without it, the young soprano from pre jugolovia may never have made it, to become the chief verdi soprano at the met for two decades. when asked by bob sherman on wxqr met intermission feature what she was thinking o when she recorded her legendary, so perfect d’amor sull’alli rose, after he had just played it, and then listed all the perfect qualities, zinka replied, well, you know mr. sherman, i all i thought about was doing everything verdi demands of a singer singing this aria, and i have to tell you, that listening to it now here, i, zinka, didn’t know that even i could sing so perfectly! brava zinka!
Sometimes I go to Opera’s performances trying to find her in somewhere and the result is obvious: getting disappointed.
Because It is impossible now days to listen a voice like Milanov’s.
Effectively. The last scene with Bjoerling (referring to Aida recording) is something that seems to be created out of this world and rehearsed in mart and brought to earth just to show perfection. D’ amor sull alli rose can not be never sung as Milanov again She simply set the bar in such a way that the rest of the sopranos should avoid that recording if they want at least to be themselves as artist on stage..
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The most uniquely beautiful soprano voice of the 20th Century was that of Anna Moffo
Anna’s phrasing wraps around you and draws you into the music. I found Zinka, tho impressive, too austere.
As a young usher at The Met I saw her last performance(Chenier)
she was moving chairs around! Brava Zinka!
Milanov was not universally lauded by peers or predecessors. Alexander Kipnis, who sang with her, maintained that her Slavic timbre made her the inferior of the two Rosas he had heard (Ponselle in London in 1929) and sung with (Raisa in Chicago), He linkened her acting to that of a traffic cop, “moving one arm up, the other one down, and then extending both outward for a climax.” When I played Kipnis’s taped comments for Ponselle, she said, “Who can argue with this great man?” Then she added, “Yes, her voice was Slavic and nothing like mine. But I wish I had Milanov’s top!”
I really enjoy reading and listening to your posts about the great singers! 99% of the time I completely agree with you. However, in this case, it seems like you have a bias, from what I have read, against Rosa Ponselle! I have listened to both of them many many times, in addition to all the other great Sopranos of the 20th century. And in my opinion, as beautiful as Zinka Milanovs Voice was, neither she, nor anyone else could compare with the incredible voice of Rosa Ponselle. And you never seem to mention that Roosa’s recordings were made 100 years ago, when recording techniques were so much more primitive than in Zinka Milanovs day. And not only was Rosa Ponzo’s voicethe most beautiful, dark, velvety, and enormous voice I have ever heard, but she was also a gorgeous, gorgeous woman. And the other thing that I think you might miss a little bit is with Mario Lanza. Yes, it is a shame that he did not pursue a career completely as an opera singer. But if you compare his voice to any of the other great opera singers, including Mario, Delmonico, Franco Corelli, Enrico Caruso, Giuseppe di Stephano , Jussi Bjorling, And others, I don’t think you could say that his voice was not equally as great and beautiful as any of them.
Re Lanza see here: https://medicine-opera.com/2021/01/mario-lanza-100th-birthday/