Word: milanov
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Maria Callas, Zinka Milanov, and Rudolph Bing together in one room and you'll have the situation that forms the basis for Mozart's charming little comic opera, The Impresario. The petty jealousies and bickerings detailed by Mozart and his librettist strike home today just as well as they...
Another story was Cavalleria, in a kind of performance that would have done well in a provincial Italian opera house. Dimitri Mitropoulos, when he was not drowning out the singers with his orchestra, conducted as if afflicted by an overdose of Miltown. Soprano Zinka Milanov found her still-beautiful voice crumbling around the edges. Allowances are customarily made for inept acting in prima donnas, but Diva Milanov plunged beyond the point of tolerance as she flung herself about the stage clutching her ample midriff. She provided a fine argument for bringing back Callas at all costs...
Waking or sleeping, diplomatic Rudi Bing would rather stage the whole Ring Cycle with a company of midgets than publicize a preference among his three dazzling prima donnas. For sheer beauty of voice, the prize might go to Milanov, who at 52 still offers many a superb performance. For excitement, versatility and dramatic power, the apple would easily go to Maria Callas. But for sustained excellence of singing, it would go to Renata Tebaldi...
...three personalities are as different as their vocal specialties. If the award of Bing's dream were ever to take place, Soprano Milanov, a buxom, outgoing, hearty woman, would probably take a bite out of the apple. Soprano Callas would coolly accept it as her due and have it mounted in diamonds. Soprano Tebaldi, if she followed form, would place it on her dressing table amid her collection of toy animals. On the surface, at least, Renata Tebaldi is that rarest of phenomena in the posturing, wigged-and-powdered world of grand opera-a soprano without apparent temper, temperament...
Champagne & Coke. Tebaldi's eminence in the world of international opera is made the more striking by a shortage of competition. Only Callas, Milanov and Italy's great mezzo, Giulietta Simionato, rank with her in the grand tradition. Below the leaders there is a substantial reservoir of fine veteran singers, all of them capable of turning in consistently competent and often inspired performances. They include Victoria de los Angeles, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Antonietta Stella, Eleanor Steber, Sena Jurinac, Lisa Delia Casa, Irmgard Seefried, Leonie Rysanek, Risë Stevens. Backing them up is a promising and fast-rising crop...