Quick Facts
Biography
Tamaki Miura (三浦 環, Miura Tamaki, February 22, 1884 – May 26, 1946) was a Japanese opera singer who performed as Cio-Cio-San in Puccini's Madama Butterfly.
Biography
She was born on February 22, 1884 in Japan.
Miura made her operatic debut in Tokyo in 1911 and the same year went to Europe to perform and study. She was first cast as Cio-Cio-San by the innovative director Vladimir Rosing as part of his Allied Opera Season held in May and June 1915 at the London Opera House.
In the autumn of 1915, she performed the role in America for the first time in Chicago with the Boston Opera Company. She also sang in St. Louis, Missouri, in October that year. Positive reviews led to further performances in both Madama Butterfly and Mascagni's Iris in New York City, 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 Madama Butterfly and André Messager's Madame Chrysanthème. The latter was not well-received, being viewed as a warmed-over 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 Franchetti's Namiko-San. After this she took part in various tours and sang in Italy (March 1931 she performed at the Teatro Verdi of Pisa with the famous tenor Armando Bini, at Carani in Sassuolo, Modena in Livorno, Florence, Lucca, Pistoia, Torino, Novi Ligure, Rimini) before returning to Japan in 1932.
She died on May 26, 1946 in Japan.
Legacy
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".