Il Mito dell'Opera
CRITIC REVIEWS: “It was the Nile scene that did it. Never in my life have I heard a pianissimo like that, or the pure vocal control she had....[We] used to sit up in the balcony for every one of Zinka's performances and just marvel at her singing. When we came to Prague, we didn't expect to hear anything like that. Of course, I had heard wonderful Aďdas in New York—Rethberg, for instance — as a Juilliard student who went to [performances at] the Met. But Zinka's voice made such a direct connection with you. I would say the way that sound came out into the opera house and just pulsated all around you, that was electrifying.” - Risë Stevens (on hearing Milanov's Aďda in Prague) “Milanov came like a bolt out of heaven—the voice and the young woman, both so vibrant and exciting. We knew something great had come into [the Met’s] the Italian wing. What was not obvious at the beginning was that she would have such a staying power, for she gave so much in her singing.…I was present years later on her great anniversaries and she sang at mine [the fiftieth anniversary of his Met début, 1963]. She was incomparable. She was like a vocal sorceress singing the OTELLO arias that night. Such a roar went up from the public, I can never forget it.” - Giovanni Martinelli Wykonawcy: Zinka Milanov (Aida), Mario del Monaco (Radamès), Blanche Thebom (Amneris), George London (Amonasro), Jerome Hines (Ramphis), Luben Vichey (Il Re di Egitto), Lucine Amara (Una Sacerdotessa), Thomas Hayward (Un Messaggero) Metropolitan Opera and Chorus, Fausto Cleva