Tamaki Miura

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tamaki Miura

Tamaki Miura (三浦環, Miura Tamaki^?, February 22, 1884 - May 26, 1946) was a Japanese opera singer famous for her performances as Cio-Cio-San in Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

Miura made her operatic debut in Tokyo in 1911 and the same year went to Europe to perform and study. In the autumn of 1915, she performed the role for the first time in Boston. Positive reviews led to further performances in both Madama Butterfly and Mascagni's Iris in New York, San Francisco and Chicago, before returning to London to work with the Beecham company. In 1918 she returned to the United States where for two seasons she performed both Madame Butterfly and André Messager's Madame Chrysantheme. The latter was not well-received, being viewed as a warmed-up Butterfly. In 1920 she was a guest performer at opera houses in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Florence and Rome. Upon her return to Japan from this tour, she stopped in Nagasaki in 1922 to see places connected with the opera and to give a concert.

In 1924 Miura returned to the United States to perform with the San Carlo Opera Company. Two years later she again went to Chicago to create the title role in Aldo Fanchetti's Namiko-San. After this she took part in various tours and sang in Italy before returning to Japan in 1932.

Her statue, with that of Puccini, can be seen in Nagasaki's Glover Garden.

While being highly praised for the "authenticity" of her performance of Cio-Cio-San, Miura's voice has been described variously as "somewhat thin and unsupported" and "rather small and white".