Aida - Ritorna vincitor [6:45]
Aida - O patria mia [6:41
Un Ballo in Maschera - Ecco l'orrido
... Ma dall'arido ... Teco io sto [22:45]
with Jan Peerce and Leonard Warren
rec: 21 January 1955
Un Ballo in Maschera - Morrò,
ma prima in grazia [4:35]
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Dimitri
Mitropoulos, conductor
rec: 9 January 1955
La Forza del Destino - Son giunta! grazie,
o Dio ... Madre, pietosa Vergine [6:33]
rec: May 1953
La Forza del Destino - La Vergine degli
Angeli [3:25]
rec: 7 April 1955
La Forza del Destino - Pace, pace, mio
Dio! [5:32]
rec: May 1953
La Forza del Destino - Io muoio! ...
Non imprecare umiliati [8:12]
with Jan Peerce, Leonard Warren and
Nicola Moscona
rec: 7 April 1955
Il Trovatore - Tacea la notte placida
[5:18]
rec: February 1952
Il Trovatore - Timor di me? ... D'amor
sull'ali rosee [5:14]
rec: February 1952
Il Trovatore - Miserere [4:40]
rec: February 1952
These extracts are
not to be confused with the complete
operatic performances that Zinka Milanov
recorded during her career. They are
arias recorded between 1952 and 1955
and not compiled from those famed complete
sets.
That noted these are
passionately convincing performances
performed with all her accustomed strength
and artistry. The Aida extracts predated
the Rome/Perlea recording, with such
luminaries as Björling, Warren,
Christoff and Barbieri, by a full two
years. She is similarly commanding,
though this never precluded sensitivity
to dynamics – note this often under
appreciated facet of her musicianship
in O patria mia where the sheer
range of voice is impressive. There’s
a December 1940 Met performance of Un
Ballo in Maschera again with Björling
and also with Sved, conducted by Ettore
Panizza. These two extracts are both
from 1955 and with Nimbus we hear her
with Warren and Peerce. The latent power
of her singing is obvious but once again
its deployment is never self-regarding
and always musically sophisticated.
Maybe pitch sags too much during the
long first extract and her tone tends
to the squally from time to time but
there are superb compensations nonetheless.
One note of caution; Ecco l'orrido
..., Ma dall'arido ... and Teco
io sto form this long, single twenty
three minute track and it might have
been better to sub-divide them into
three, tracked separately.
There are four extracts
from La Forza and they will assuredly
remind admirers of her later, 1959 complete
set with Di Stefano, Warren and Previtali
conducting. These 1953 and ’55 extracts
are no less assured, no less remarkable.
Milanov recorded Il Trovatore
complete with Björling in 1955.
She joins Jan Peerce in the 1952 Miserere.
But it’s perhaps Tacea la notte
placida that shows her at her best,
the coloratura crystal sharp and brilliantly
deployed, her theatrical control unimpeachable,
the sheer fluency of the singing undeniable.
It’s one of the high points of a recital
brimming over with such.
The transfers have
been well managed and the booklet has
some good biographical information,
though wildly contradictory dates of
birth and death of its heroine.
Jonathan Woolf
see also review
by Goran
Forsling
for details
RCA Victor Orchestra, Renato Cellini,
conductor 
