Zinka Milanov and Floria Tosca: Art, Love, and Politics

Introduction

Zinka Milanov sang more than one hundred performances of the title role of Tosca, the third most often performed opera in her repertory—after Aida and Il trovatore—over a time-span (thirty-six years) longer than that of any other great performer of the part except Maria Jeritza. ¹ Among the memorable artists whose onstage durability as the Roman diva might seem to be comparable, yes, Magda Olivero sang Tosca to a much greater age than did Milanov, but took up the role too far into her career to acquire a similar length of visibility in it. Dorothy Kirsten sang it for twenty-eight years (1951-79), Renata Tebaldi for twenty-four (1946-70), Maria Callas for twenty-three (1942-65), and so forth. Though Milanov remains number-two champion in the longevity sweepstakes, there is no question, from the recorded evidence, that she was still capable of singing the role remarkably well her last time out, an evaluation that definitely cannot be applied to Jeritza. Add to this the fact that more than a few important life and career incidents occurred in connection with Tosca, and the artist/role association, in Milanov's case, becomes something of a story in itself. Therefore the decision was made to share with the Quarterly's readers not another self-contained chapter from my unpublished biography of the soprano, which by definition would cover a limited period of time and only the events that transpired within that time, but to examine the place of this single role in her four-decade life in the theater. Though the resulting narrative contains extensive quotations from reviews and commentaries, the performances are surveyed in the context of that theatrical life, for the public appearances of a major singer in a great role over a long period of time in many countries do not occur in a vacuum. For Milanov, as for most of the elite class of extraordinary women who have consecrated their existences to singing, and singing on the very highest level, that remarkable Sardou/Giacosa/Illica/Puccini creatura Floria Tosca stands as a sort of sacred metaphor, however melodramatic, for devotion to art and love, with "Vissi d'arte" the virtual prima donna national anthem. The format here catalogues all the Toscas Milanov sang, in an ongoing annals, in the body of the article. Singers of the other principal roles—Cavaradossi (C), Scarpia (Sc), and the Sacristan (Sa)—are listed only by surname after their first appearance in the chronology. Occasionally the performer of another role (Angelotti, Jailer, Shepherd) is noted when his or her presence lends interest because of subsequent career accomplishments. The name after the colon in each entry is the conductor's (c). The designation (d) means the performance was a debut in that opera house.

In the Beginning

The legend of Zinka Milanov intersects and in profound ways mirrors that of one of only two great Croatian sopranos before her who likewise left the Balkans and triumphed in the operatic centers of Europe and America. ² Milka Ternina, galvanic late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century Isolde and Brünnhilde who sacrificed her relationship with Wagner's widow Cosima and the Bayreuth Festival to be the first artist to sing Kundry outside the Festspielhaus (previously the only performance venue allowed for Parsifal), was also the first Tosca in both Great Britain and the United States. These performances (12 July 1900 at Covent Garden and 4 February 1901 at the Metropolitan Opera, two companies in which Ternina was greatly admired and respected) have entered operatic mythology as being among the most dramatically charged and emotively overwhelming ever to have transpired. No less an observer than Henry James found Ternina's London Tosca "a devastating experience," a reaction he confessed to her face at a post-performance party. ³

Puccini himself was deeply impressed by the soprano as well, though, objective man of the theater that he...