Zinka Milanov

Born on May 17, 1906, into a musically active household in Zagreb, Zinka Milanov rose to prominence as a Croatian soprano whose career placed her among opera’s most celebrated figures. Her command of the spinto parts in Verdi, Puccini, and Bellini was matched by a voice widely admired for its combination of power, lushness, and translucent beauty. Music formed the core of her upbringing: her father served as a bandmaster, her brother worked as a composer and pianist, and an uncle who composed several songs expressly for her. She sang from childhood onward and, in 1920, entered the Zagreb Music Academy to study with the distinguished Wagner interpreter Milka Ternina. A debut recital in her native city followed the next year, and in 1927 she made her first operatic appearance as Leonora in Verdi’s Il Travatore. The same role brought her before Dresden Opera audiences the subsequent season, after which Ternina, displeased with what she heard, resumed refining Milanov’s technique. Further study took place under Maria Kostrenčić, Fernando Carpi, and Jacques Stückgold. Over the ensuing six years she served as principal soprano of the Zagreb Opera and appeared widely across Europe. Bruno Walter’s 1936 Vienna production of Aida so impressed the conductor that he proposed her to Toscanini for the Verdi Requiem at the 1937 Salzburg Festival. Although Toscanini initially found fault with her phrasing and musicianship, the performance succeeded. Three months afterward, in December 1937, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in New York, launching an association that continued until 1966 and comprised 424 performances. During the 1940s she recorded extensively and sang in Buenos Aires, San Francisco, and Chicago, yet World War II delayed her European return until a 1950 La Scala engagement. Her final Metropolitan Opera House appearance took place in 1966, after which she moved steadily into teaching. Eleven years later she joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music, thereby fulfilling a commitment to transmit her knowledge and artistry. On May 30, 1989, following a stroke, she died at Lennox Hill Hospital in Manhattan.