s grossmemorial.html


In memory of


Roger Gross

1938 - 2013






Prime Milanov - Norma and La gioconda

from The New York Times...
Roger Gross, one of the world's memorable connoisseurs of opera and singing, died peacefully at his home on January 4 after an illness of two years. Close friends of soprano Zinka Milanov, Roger and his mother Dorothy Mannes Gross (d. 1994) entertained singers, composers and conductors in their Manhattan home and during summers in Europe, especially in Venice where they were domiciled with the eminent decorator Ruben de Saavedra (d. 1990), with whom he owned and operated an interior design business and related antiques shop in New York. In recent years he dedicated himself to Roger Gross Ltd., a highly respected antiquarian musical manuscript and opera memorabilia business. Working alone with the manuscripts, autographs, and photographs, he supplied material to institutions and important collectors as well as impecunious fans of musicians and composers of the past and present. Known for his informative and witty conversation, the same qualities were always to be found in the descriptions in his sales lists. In his letter of condolence, Roger's friend and colleague, Dr. Otto Biba, head of Vienna's Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, wrote that Roger, was a unique person and a unique personality with his unmatched historical knowledge and love for opera, was the greatest expert of operatic voices that he knew. A memorial service will be announced at a later date. He will be greatly missed by all of those that knew and loved him.


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Memories of Mme Milanov

We have now only her recordings, both studio and live, a handful of video and radio interviews, a "Vissi d'arte" from a television varity show, silent clips from backstage at the Met and the memories of those who heard and knew her.

This webpage is in memory of Roger Gross. There are two examples of Milanov's singing followed by Mr. Gross' obituary, The New York Times. Following that, I have begun to compile anecdotes, memories and observations about Mme Milanov and would welcome anyone's account of her, apocryphal or not. I don't seek descriptions of her singing, how beautiful it was, etc., but it's those delicious stories that we all enjoy hearing, a guilty pleasure that I'm sure we all share.

Please email me privately with your contribution(s). Your name will not be included on the webpage. If your contribution is similar to another version already here, it will still be published, along with the other version(s) of the same story. The recollections begin with the most recent contribution(s).

To contribute, please write to:

donald@collup.com

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I remember a memorial remembrance talk Bruce Burroughs gave during a Met intermission after Milanov died. He told a funny story about having dinner with the lady. Milanov called him up and invited him to dinner that evening, saying, "Ve vill haff ze Feesh." Burroughs was pleased that Zinka was serving fish because he was concerned for her health and wanted her to lose weight. When he arrived, Zinka was in the kitchen cooking up a storm. She was sauteeing some large prawns that were coated in flour, egg and buttered bread crumbs, which were to be served on a bed of buttered rice pilaf and covered with a rich cream sauce. Burroughs said, "Now what's all this?" Zinka replied, 'Vhat do you mean, my dear, 'vhat's all zis"? Zis ees our Feesh."
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...she always talked to (Amonasro) during the performance while they were standing on the stage at the end of the Triumphal scene.
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I was at the Met when Callas made her debut (after waiting all night). During intermission i saw Milanov with a crowd around her. I wanted her autograph desperately. I had my Norma program and opened it to the centerfold. I managed to 'break thru" and said to her, "Mme Milanov" would you sign my program please?" She took my pen, looked down at the program that said, "Maria Meneghini Callas (debut) and sort of touched Callas' name. Then she looked up at me and said, "My dear boy, are you sure you have the right person?"

With a twinkle in her eye and a grin on her face she asked me this. She then signed the program. I thought she was very sweet with a good sense of humor.

As I turned away after thanking her, I heard a loud queen ask her (from fifteen feet away), "Miss Milanov, Miss Milanov, What do you think of Callas". Milanov looked at him and said, "She'll Never Last".
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We were going to a Carnegie performance, and by the entrance in the lobby, there were Roger, Ruben and Milanov. Ruben presented Rita Shane, "I'd like to introduce the greatest Queen of the night in the world." Zinka: "Really. Let's hear it."
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New production of "Trovatore" in 1959, and Warren is preening in his new costume, with headdress, capped with feathers... "So, Zinka, what do you think?" Zinka: "Leonard, you look just like a rooster."
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In some productions, Zinka would not return to the dressing room, but would sit on a small stool, just offstage. One night, a friend of mine stood beside her while a newcomer was bawling onstage, to which she muttered, "Dees new tenoooor, dees vahts-hees-name, whose idea eet vas ve should hire heem?"
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A Met gala, perhaps 1961, Zinka sharing a dressing room with Lily Pons. Pons chirps, "What an evening, a little of the old, a little of the new." Zinka mutters uncharitably, "and dey're making deir choices..."
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A post-Boheme dinner on the grand tier in 1975, the first Met pairing of Carreras and Ricciarelli, and the Gaffemeister Schuyler Chapin boorishly thanks the stars, Carreras and Ricciarelli. Period, end of praise. Applause, silence and Bill Walker, sitting with fellow Americans Rita Shane and Giorgio Tozzi, mutters, "What're we? Chopped liver?" Just then, a trio of enthusiastic ladies arrive to congratulate the three seated there. They are respectively, Brazilian and Italian, led by a Croatian ... names, Sayao, Albanese and Mme Zinka Milanov.
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My first Otello with McCracken ... and Zinka a not too young Desdemona, laboring all night until a magical Salce, salce and Ave maria .... but the spell was broken when she had to be helped up from her kneeling posture.
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At a Met Bazaar, my friends came to her and told her how they always loved her, etc. She replied, "Are you PROFESSIONAL?"
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I wanted her to sign a gorgeous photo of Mme Milanov and Tucker singing the Chenier final duet at the Gala Farewell to the Old Met. She angrily said to me, "I vill not sign thees! Eet is messed up." She only signed posed studio portraits.

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Fans of Mme Milanov would always be made to wait while she did her post-performance rituals. She would then say, "Let the cheeldren in."

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"Meester Tucker,in Cavalleria you have to poosh me..but there ees vun man who pushes too much." She was referring to Kurt Baum.

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"No vun can take my chair."

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When Eleanor Steber chipped her tooth when she jumped at the end of Tosca, Mme Milanov said,"I told her eet vas too heavy a rawl for her."

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Referring to Regina Resnik, Mme Milanov said, "I never vas seeck. She never replaced me."

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"My dear, your voice eez like a rainbow: every note a deefferent cawlawr."

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Astrid Varnay, May 22, 2003

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"... the imperious Zinka Milanov, whom Horne remembered as "a great, great singer. But her character left a lot to be desired."

Once, remembers Horne, the haughty Milanov was singing Norma at the Met with Jennie Tourel as Adalgisa. "Zinka was not a great Norma. She had the voice for it. But in those days they really slopped the coloratura out a lot. And Jennie got these great reviews but they just blasted Milanov. "And do you remember in the old Met how you had to walk past the star dressing room to get to the others? Well, the next night Milanov got there first and waited behind the door of her dressing room until Jennie came in. Jennie arrived and as she walked past the door Milanov opened it and she said in her Balkan accent , "Heppy?" and then shut the door."

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During a voice lesson for Anna Moffo, Mme Milanov demonstrates to Moffo the proper position of the tongue. Moffo sees a tiny snake of a tongue peeking from Milanov's mouth. "Anna darling, let me see your tongue.". Moffo complies. "Anna, your tongue is too big." Moffo mutters to her accompanist, "What does she want me to do, cut it off?"

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Richard Mohr, Bidu Sayao, Zinka Milanov

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In the late 1970s, I was walking west on the north side of West 72nd Street between Central Park West and Amsterdam Avenue. All of a sudden in the distance, I saw Mme Milanov and whom I assume to have been her brother walking east. I said to myself, "Well, it's probably now or never."

When we encountered each other, I politely stopped them and asked for an autograph. Mme Milanov quipped, "Vell I usually don't do zees on ze street!" As I fumbled for a piece of paper and a pen, she must have said, "I usually don't do zees on ze street!" two more times, retaining her typical upper hand.
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Mme Milanov once said that the best place on a symphonic program is the beginning of the second half.

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Backstage during Act I of Il trovatore: Manrico is singing from offstage "Deserto sulla terra". Someone walks up to Mme Milanov to say something and she stops them: "Qviet! Baum is serenading me."

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Zinka Milanov, George London, March 15, 1958

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Concerning the famous Milanov sustained high b flat in Gioconda (Ah, come t'amo...), Margaret Harshaw said, "Do you know where that note was? IN MY WRIST!" Apparently, Milanov's Gioconda would lead Harshaw's Cieca in a wide circle around the stage then exit, all the time tightly squeezing Harshaw's wrist with her thumb and index finger.
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Ettore Verna was a well-respected musician during the 1950s, with a reputation in coaching as well as couching. One of his students was Zinka Milanov. There was some obvious hanky-panky going on one afternoon, when, all of a sudden, the studio door flung open revealing - his wife? his current main squeeze? - in a rage. She stormped over to Milanov and socked her, giving her a black eye. Zinka then cancelled her Leonora on December 6, 1944.

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On November 8, 1967, a friend of mine was on the phone with mezzo soprano Teresa Berganza. It was the day before the "legendary" (for all the wrong reasons) Carnegie Hall Norma in a concert version with Elena Suliotis. The subject came up in the telephone conversation and Berganza said she wasn't attending.

"The next evening, I met Zika for an early dinner and then accompanied her to Carnegie Hall. We walked into the lobby just in time to hear applause for Maria Callas, as she took her seat in a first tier box . Just as the applause ended, that was the cue for Mme Milanov to enter, receiving her own round of applause.


The next morning at 9am, my phone rang: It was Berganza. She said she ended up going to the Norma, sitting with Callas and her guests. She said when Mme Milanov entered the hall, Callas quipped with disdain, "Ah! Mme Milanov. She ruined ALL my Normas."

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From her teaching days at Indiana University: A sweet, first year graduate student from the South, a soprano, reportedly swept into the studio and gushed "Oh Mme Milanov, you simply must teach me how to produce those beautiful pianissimo high notes," after which Milanov thought for a moment (but only just), frowned and replied, "No, daahling, then there will be TWO of us."


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After she died in 1989, someone was looking for confirmation of a long-heard rumor that she had been engaged as an agent (spying for which side, I do not know) during World War II. He sought someone who reportedly knew her well (perhaps Roger Gross?), and asked about the possibility. "Oh no, she could never keep a secret," was the immediate reply.


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Zinka Milanov and Boris Goldovskyy discuss
Simon Boccanegra, February 16, 1961



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Rather audibly overheard during a performance of La forza del destino (convent scene) with Leontyne Price:
"She has no right to sing this opera."


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It's another birthday party for another musical bigwig (Rudolf Bing, as I recall). On the guest list is Met newcomer, Mirella Freni. "Happy Birthday" is sung to the big man. Milanov catches an earful of Freni, gasps, clutches at her throat, enraptured. "Listen," she whispers; closing her eyes, transported. "She sounds like a young me!"


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She was heard greeting a famous closeted baritone with his "girlfriend" backstage after a performance.

"You haven't come to see me in such a LOOONG time! And so nice to meet your seester."


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Backstage at the old Met, in her dressing room after a performance, with well wishers being let in to greet her, obtain autographs, etc.

One of those entering the room looks at her and says, "That can't be Zinka Milanov. She's too fat."

All freeze. There is dead silence. Everyone waits for the WOZ (wrath of Zinka) to fall upon this poor, hapless creature.

Instead, Zinka turns to him and says, "It's me, darling. All of me."


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Having retired, Zinka was visiting professor of voice at (Indiana) university. It was the end of the semester and all the voice teachers were seated behind a table hearing juries. Some girl got up and croaked her way through Caro mio ben. Milanov started to write an F on the grading sheet. One of the full time professors leaned over and whispered "Oh, Mme Milanov, don't be so hard on her - she's just a vocal education major. Milanov exploded, "You meen she is SHPREADING ZHEES DISEASE?!?"


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...a famous baritone who was married, but known among his colleagues to be a closeted gay man. He hadn't been to see her for a while, when it seemed she was going though a vocal rough spot. However, one evening he stopped by her dressing room, this time alone.

She said, "Ah, how nice to see you. It's been such a long time. And how is your seester?"

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A Philadelphia suburb church organist was holding auditions for an assistant and all the auditioners from Indiana University listed on their resumes.

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Milanov (supposedly) dissed colleagues on stage. In one story she whispered to Kurt Baum, "You're not in good voice tonight, Kurt. I don't think you can make that B."

Organ major: (name of teacher)
Voice minor: Zinka Milanov

Most of her voice majors had left her.


During a photo shoot with Richard Avadon, he reportedly asked Milanov if she would like him to airbrush out the double chin. She said, "No, leave it - it ees covering somezing precious."


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Photos courtesy of Charles Handelman and Michael McPherson