Tamara Milashkina

Tamara Andreyevna Mirnenko was born in Astrakhan on 13 September 1934.{{cite web | url = https://tass.ru/info/19701129 | title = Биография народной артистки СССР Тамары Милашкиной (Biography of People's Artist of the USSR Tamara Milashkina) | publisher = TASS | date = 10 January 2024 | access-date = 3 July 2024 | archive-date = 10 January 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240110145512/https://tass.ru/info/19701129 | url-status = live }}{{cite encyclopedia | last1 = Kutsch | first1 = K. J. | author-link = Karl Josef Kutsch | last2 = Riemens | first2 = Leo | author-link2 = Leo Riemens | entry-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=dsfq_5dFeL0C&pg=3124 | entry = Milaschkina, Tamara | encyclopedia = Großes Sängerlexikon | publisher = De Gruyter | edition = 4th | language = de | date = 2012 | pages = 1324–3125 | isbn = 978-3-59-844088-5 | access-date = 16 January 2024 | archive-date = 16 January 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240116100548/https://books.google.com/books?id=dsfq_5dFeL0C&pg=3124 | url-status = live }} After secondary school she entered the Astrakhan library technical school. During this time, Milashkina belonged to a choir. She began voice studies at the Astrakhan Music College in 1953. Maria Maksakova Sr., a famous singer who had studied at the college, noticed her in a performance, and recommended studies at the Moscow Conservatory. She applied and was accepted due to the natural quality of her colourful voice.{{cite book | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=1WQwb5I81UsC&pg=RA3-PA39 | chapter = Tamara Milashkina | title = Soviet Life | publisher = Embassy of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics in the USA | date = 1986 | page = 39 | access-date = 16 January 2024 | archive-date = 3 July 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240703221347/https://books.google.com/books?id=1WQwb5I81UsC&pg=RA3-PA39#v=onepage&q&f=false | url-status = live }} Milashkina studied there with {{ill|Elena Katulskaya|qid=Q16701201}}. In 1957 she received the Gold medal of the International Youth Festival. She graduated in 1959.

In her final year of studies, Milashkina became a member of the Bolshoi Opera in 1958, making her official debut as Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin; she remained one of the leading sopranos until 1989. Her roles included Lisa in Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame, Katharina in Shebalin's The Taming of the Shrew, Liubka in Prokofiev's Semyon Kotko, Fevroniya in Rimsky-Korsakov's The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya, Verdi's Leonora in Il trovatore and Aida, and Puccini's Tosca. Her Russian repertoire also included Yaroslavna in Borodin's Prince Igor, the Tsarina in Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tale of Tsar Saltan, Natasha in Prokofief's War and Peace, and Maria in Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa. Other Verdi roles ware Elisabetta in Don Carlos, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera and Desdemona in Otello.

She studied further at the opera studio of La Scala in Milan from 1961–62, where she appeared as the first Soviet soprano in 1962 as Lidia in Verdi's La battaglia di Legnano,{{cite web | url = https://virtualmuseum.nationalopera.gr/en/virtual-exhibition/persons/milashkina-tamara-2524/ | title = Tamara Milashkina | publisher = Greek National Opera | date = | access-date = 15 January 2024 | archive-date = 15 January 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240115150939/https://virtualmuseum.nationalopera.gr/en/virtual-exhibition/persons/milashkina-tamara-2524/ | url-status = live }} conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni. In Bolshoi productions, she performed there also in 1964 as both Lisa in Pique Dame and Natasha in War and Peace, alongside Juri Mazurok as Prince Bolkonsky, and Alexander Vedernikov as General Kutusov.{{cite news | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1964/11/22/archives/milan-dazzled-by-bolshoi.html | title = Milan Dazzled by Bolshoi | newspaper = The New York Times | date = 22 November 1964 | access-date = 16 January 2024 | archive-date = 16 January 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240116081505/https://www.nytimes.com/1964/11/22/archives/milan-dazzled-by-bolshoi.html | url-status = live }}

File:RIAN archive 632923 Tamara Milashkina and Yury Mazurok in scene from opera Eugene Onegin.jpg

Milashkina appeared at the Vienna State Opera from 1971 first as Lisa, with great success, later also as Leonora, Tosca, Aida and Elisabetta.{{cite web | url = https://archiv.wiener-staatsoper.at/search/person/1919 | title = Vorstellungen mit Tamara Milaschkina | publisher = Vienna State Opera | date = 2024 | access-date = 16 January 2024 | archive-date = 16 January 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240116091707/https://archiv.wiener-staatsoper.at/search/person/1919 | url-status = live }} She performed as Tosca at the Opéra de Paris in 1969, and both Tosca and Tatyana at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1974,{{cite book | last = Bagnoli | first = Giorgio | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=FUJ0bvo6rQIC&dq=%22Milashkina,+Tamara%22&pg=PA254 | title = Tamara Milashkina | publisher = La Scala Encyclopedia | date = 1993| page = 254 | isbn = 978-0-671-87042-3 | access-date = 15 January 2024}} as Tosca also at the Opéra de Paris. Milashkina appeared as a guest at other leading opera houses of Europe, such as the Oslo Opera House, the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, and at the Hungarian State Opera House in Budapest in 1974. She performed at the Greek National Opera as Leonora in Il trovatore and Lisa in 1974 and as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin in 1976. She toured extensively with the Bolshoi, including to New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1975 for Eugene Onegin and Pique Dame; she performed alongside her husband, tenor Vladimir Atlantov, in Onegin conducted by Fuat Mansurov{{cite news | last = Schonberg | first = Harald C.|author-link=Harold C. Schonberg| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1975/06/28/archives/opera-bolshoi-adds-new-dimension-to-onegin.html | title = Opera: Bolshoi Adds New Dimension to Onegin| newspaper = The New York Times | date = 28 June 1975 | access-date = 15 January 2024 | archive-date = 15 January 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240115161731/https://www.nytimes.com/1975/06/28/archives/opera-bolshoi-adds-new-dimension-to-onegin.html | url-status = live }} and in Pique Dame conducted by Yuri Simonov.{{cite news | last = Schonberg | first = Harald C.|author-link=Harold C. Schonberg| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1975/07/04/archives/bolshoi-pique-dame-is-the-real-thing.html | title = Bolshoi Pique Dame Is the Real Thing | newspaper = The New York Times | date = 4 July 1975 | access-date = 15 January 2024 | archive-date = 15 January 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240115160507/https://www.nytimes.com/1975/07/04/archives/bolshoi-pique-dame-is-the-real-thing.html | url-status = live }} The New York Times music critic Harold C. Schonberg summarised the effect of this performance of Onegin, writing that "[there] was the special kind of authenticity that only Russians can supply in this singularly beautiful opera".

In 1973, she received the title People's Artist of the USSR,{{cite web | url = http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Tamara+Milashkina | title = Tamara Milashkina | publisher = The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition. (1970-1979) | access-date = 22 June 2024 | archive-date = 3 July 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240703221348/https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Tamara+Milashkina | url-status = live }} and the Glinka State Prize in 1982.

After leaving the Bolshoi Theatre in 1989, she performed internationally in France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Japan and the U.S., among others.

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera described Milashkina's voice in 1992: "She has a voice of distinctive timbre and unusual warmth and beauty; reserve and emotional depth combine to lend her stage portrayals particular sensitivity."{{cite encyclopedia | last = Yampolsky | first = I. M. | url = https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/display/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000002334 | title = Tamara Milashkina | encyclopedia = The New Grove Dictionary of Opera | date = 1992 | access-date = 1 July 2024 | archive-date = 3 July 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240703221352/https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/display/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000002334 | url-status = live }} In a 1983 portrait for the Bolshoi Theatre, E. Grosheva wrote: {{quote| Milashkina's voice is unique; nature and intelligent labour generously endowed it with freedom and richness of colours, fullness and roundness of sound – ringing, flying in the upper notes, substantial, chesty in the lows, equally collected and expressive in the whole range, covering about two and a half octaves.{{cite web | last = Grosheva | first = E. | url = http://bolshoi-theatr.com/article/473/part-18/ | title = Тамара Милашкина | work = Певцы Большого театра СССР: Одиннадцать портретов | publisher = Bolshoi Theatre | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140426201635/http://bolshoi-theatr.com/article/473/part-18/ | archive-date = 26 April 2014 | date = 1983 | page = 39 | access-date = 3 July 2024 | language = ru }}}} A reviewer from the French newspaper Aurore noted in 1978, when the Bolshoi Theatre toured to Paris: "She slightly resembles Victoria de Los Angeles, but her voice is much more luxurious, warmer, more reverent".

Russian soprano {{ill|Marina Mescheriakova|de}} spoke about Milashkina's early influence on her in a 2002 interview: "When I was a child studying piano, maybe five years old, I heard a recording of Milashkina. It made a big impression. Beautiful sounds, beautiful meanings. I liked it because she was a singer with a dark color. When I began to sing, I did not imitate her, but I thought her voice was very close to mine."{{cite magazine | last = Bernheimer | first = M.|author-link=Martin Bernheimer | title = Marina Fortuna: the meaty Verdi soprano roles have been a string of good-luck charms for Marina Mescheriakova | magazine =Opera News| date = July 2002}}

Milashkina was married to the tenor Vladimir Atlantov; they had a daughter, Lara, born in 1963.{{cite news | url = https://www.historicaltenors.net/russian/atlantovFRM2.html | title = Vladimir Andreevich Atlantov | website = historicaltenors.net | date = | access-date = 16 January 2024 | archive-date = 16 January 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240116082523/https://www.historicaltenors.net/russian/atlantovFRM2.html | url-status = live }} After Milashkina's retirement from the Bolshoi, they lived in Vienna.{{cite news | url = https://pravda-de.com/austria/2024/01/11/64560.html | title = Die Volkskünstlerin der UdSSR, Tamara Milaschkina, starb im 90. Lebensjahr | newspaper = Pravda | date = 11 January 2024 | language = de | access-date = 16 January 2024 | archive-date = 16 January 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240116091609/https://pravda-de.com/austria/2024/01/11/64560.html | url-status = live }}

Tamara Milashkina died in Vienna on 10 January 2024, at the age of 89.{{cite news | url = https://www.classicalmusicnews.ru/news/tamara-milashkina-passed/ | title = Ушла из жизни Тамара Милашкина | website = classicalmusicnews.ru | date = 10 January 2024 | language = ru | access-date = 10 January 2024 | archive-date = 10 January 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240110124844/https://www.classicalmusicnews.ru/news/tamara-milashkina-passed/ | url-status = live }}{{cite magazine | language = fr | title = La soprano Tamara Milachkina est morte | url = https://www.diapasonmag.fr/a-la-une/la-soprano-tamara-milachkina-est-morte-44066.html | magazine = Diapason | date = 11 January 2024 | access-date = 11 January 2024 | archive-date = 11 January 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240111145314/http://www.diapasonmag.fr/a-la-une/la-soprano-tamara-milachkina-est-morte-44066.html | url-status = live }}

In 1966, a documentary Волшебница из града Китежа (The Enchantress From the City of Kitezh) was devoted to her art.

Milashkina recorded extensively for Melodiya. She recorded Tchaikovsky's early opera fragment Undina in 1963, with tenor Yevgeny Raykov and the Moscow Radio Opera Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Yevgeny Akulov.{{cite AV media | people=Akulov, Yevgeny (conductor) | date=1963 | title=Tchaikovsky: Undina, TH 2 (Tchaikovsky: Complete Operas) | type=Audio recording | url=https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8440686--tchaikovsky-complete-operas | location=Moscow, Russia | publisher=Profil Medien | access-date=18 January 2024 | archive-date=18 January 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240118164045/https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8440686--tchaikovsky-complete-operas | url-status=live }} In 1974 she recorded her most famous role, Lisa in The Queen of Spades (Pique Dame), opposite Atlantov, with Bolshoi forces conducted by Mark Ermler.{{cite web | url = https://www.operadis-opera-discography.org.uk/CLTCQUEE.HTM#17 | title = The Queen of Spades by Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky performed in Russian | website = operadis-opera-discography.org.uk | access-date = 1 September 2018 | archive-date = 3 July 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240703221349/https://www.operadis-opera-discography.org.uk/CLTCQUEE.HTM#17 | url-status = live }}{{cite web | last = Nowotny | first = Walter | url = https://onlinemerker.com/geburtstage-im-september-2019/ | title = Geburtstage im September / Tamara Milaschkina wird 85 | website = Online Merker | date = 31 August 2019 | access-date = 16 January 2024 | archive-date = 3 July 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240703221350/https://onlinemerker.com/geburtstage-im-september-2019/ | url-status = live }} She recorded Tosca the same year, again with Atlantov and conducted by Ermler; a reviewer noted that she was a "thrilling if unsubtle singer" who lived the role, summarising: "hers is a Tosca to rank with some of the finest".{{cite web | last = Levine | first = Robert | url = https://www.classicstoday.com/review/tosca-a-la-russe-exciting-if-noisy/ | title = Tosca À La Russe–Exciting, If Noisy | website = classicstoday.com | date = 4 July 1975 | access-date = 15 January 2024 | archive-date = 3 July 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240703221351/https://www.classicstoday.com/review/tosca-a-la-russe-exciting-if-noisy/ | url-status = live }} In 1979 she recorded Eugene Onegin, with Yuri Mazurok in the title role and again Atlantov and Ermler; a reviewer wrote that she was "clearly an intelligent artist and compensates for her occasional lack of vocal allure by her identification with a role which suits her voice type".{{cite web | last = Moore | first = Ralph | url = http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2018/Feb/Tchaikovsky_Onegin_MELCD1002418.htm | title = Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) / Eugene Onegin | website = musicweb-international.com | date = February 2018 | access-date = 15 January 2024 | archive-date = 15 January 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240115165256/http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2018/Feb/Tchaikovsky_Onegin_MELCD1002418.htm | url-status = live }} In 1980 she recorded the role of Natalya in Tchaikovsky's The Oprichnik, conducted by Gennady Provatorov.{{cite web | url = https://music.metason.net/artistinfo?name=Pyotr%20Ilyich%20Tchaikovsky%2C%20Gennadi%20Prowatorow&title=%D0%9E%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%20%28The%20Oprichnik%29 | title = Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Gennadi Prowatorow Опричник (The Oprichnik) | website = metason.net | date = 2024 | access-date = 18 January 2024 | archive-date = 18 January 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240118171117/https://music.metason.net/artistinfo?name=Pyotr%20Ilyich%20Tchaikovsky,%20Gennadi%20Prowatorow&title=%D0%9E%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%20(The%20Oprichnik) | url-status = live }} She recorded the title role of Rimsky-Korsakov's The Noblewoman Vera Sheloga in 1985 in another Bolshoi production conducted by Ermler.{{cite web | last = Corfield Godfrey | first = Paul | url = http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/Sep/RimskyK_operas_MELCD1002344.htm | title = Nicholas Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) / The Noblewoman Vera Sheloga | website = musicweb-international.com | date = September 2015 | access-date = 18 January 2024 | archive-date = 3 July 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240703221855/http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/Sep/RimskyK_operas_MELCD1002344.htm | url-status = live }} She also recorded Mazeppa, and the soprano solo in Shostakovitch's 14th Symphony.

Milashkina took part in a 1979 Bolshoi DVD production of Dargomyzhsky's The Stone Guest conducted by Ermler, as Donna Anna alongside Atlantov as Don Juan and Alexander Vedernikov as Leporello.{{cite web | url = https://www.ccmusic.com/stone-guest/089948452591 | title = Stone Guest DVD | website = ccmusic.com | date = 2024 | access-date = 18 January 2024 | archive-date = 18 January 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240118165917/https://www.ccmusic.com/stone-guest/089948452591 | url-status = live }} In 1980, a Bolshoi production of Rimsky-Korsakov's Sadko was released as a DVD, with Atlantov, Milashkina and Irina Arkhipova, conducted by Yuri Simonov.{{cite web | url = https://www.vaimusic.com/product/4512.html | title = Sadko Atlantov, Milashkina, Arkhipova (Bolshoi 1980) (DVD) | website = vaimusic.com | date = 2024 | access-date = 15 January 2024 | archive-date = 15 January 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240115171138/https://www.vaimusic.com/product/4512.html | url-status = live }} She appeared as Lisa again in a 1983 DVD recording of Pique Dame from the Bolshoi, conducted by Simonov, with Mazurok, Atlantov and Elena Obraztsova as the Old Countess.{{cite news | last = McLellan | first = Joseph | url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1990/10/28/classical-recordings/f80147b5-0ce6-4c50-b8f5-c7959da7e698/ | title = Classical Recordings | newspaper = The Washington Post | date = 28 October 1990 | access-date = 18 January 2024 }}{{cite web | last = Horowitz | first = Joe|author-link=Joseph Horowitz| url = https://www.artsjournal.com/uq/2019/12/pique-dame-at-the-met-and-at-the-bolshoi.html | title = Pique Dame at the Met — and at the Bolshoi | website = artsjournal.com| date = 24 December 2019 | access-date = 15 January 2024 | archive-date = 15 January 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240115171903/https://www.artsjournal.com/uq/2019/12/pique-dame-at-the-met-and-at-the-bolshoi.html | url-status = live }}

Milashkina's awards included:

• International competition within the framework of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow (1957, first prize)

{{reflist}}

• Who's Who in Opera, edited by Maria F. Rich, Arno Press, 1976.
• The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia, edited by David Hamilton, Simon & Schuster, 1987; {{ISBN|0-671-61732-X}}

{{commonscat}}

• {{imdb name|0586904}}
• {{discogs artist|Tamara Milashkina}}
• [https://music.metason.net/artistinfo?name=Tamara%20Milashkina Tamara Milashkina] (recordings) music.metason.net
• [https://sputnikmediabank.com/selection/list_1007515/ Tamara Milashkina's 80th birthday] (images) sputnikmediabank.com 2014
• {{YouTube|1eXmJoUai1A|Tamara Milashkina in an excerpt from Pique Dame (1983)}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Milashkina, Tamara}}

Category:1934 births

Category:2024 deaths

Category:20th-century Russian women opera singers

Category:People from Astrakhan

Category:Moscow Conservatory alumni

Category:Honored Artists of the RSFSR

Category:People's Artists of the RSFSR

Category:People's Artists of the USSR

Category:Recipients of the Order of Lenin

Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour

Category:Glinka State Prize of the RSFSR winners

Category:Russian operatic sopranos

Category:Soviet operatic sopranos