Tamaki Miura
Tamaki Miura | |
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三浦 環 | |
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Born | |
Died | May 26, 1946 Tokyo | (aged 62)
Resting place | Tokyo |
Occupation | Soprano singer |


Tamaki Miura (三浦 環, Miura Tamaki,
Early life
Miura was born the first daughter of Shibata Mōho and Shibata Towa (née Nagata) on February 22, 1884, in Tokyo, Japan. Shibata, a music lover had his daughter learn Japanese traditional dance and music. In her high school days, Miura set her mind to live a professional musician life under influence of her musical teacher Sugiura Chika, an alumna of Tokyo Music School. Just before Miura entered Tokyo Music School in 1900, she married an army medical officer Fujii Zen'ichi, whom her father Mōho had urged her to wed. They later divorced in 1907, after she graduated and started her professional career.
At Tokyo Music School, Miura learned piano, singing, and violin. When Japan held its first opera performance in 1903 at the auditorium of Tokyo Music School, Miura had a role while a student and gained a reputation. In 1904 she graduated Tokyo Music School and soon was employed with its faculty, first as an assistant and later as an associate professor. She built her musical career both as an educator and a performer.
Musical career
Tamaki made her professional operatic debut in Tokyo in 1911. In 1913 she married with a prospect young medical doctor Miura, and the next year went to
In the autumn of 1915, she performed the role in America for the first time in
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.
In 1940, Miura assisted Arai Wagorō with the production and distribution of Madame Butterfly's Illusion.
She died on May 26, 1946, in Japan.
Legacy
Her statue, with that of Puccini, can be seen in Nagasaki's Glover Garden.
Mt. Fuji International Opera Competition of Shizuoka held by Shizuoka Prefecture has commemorated her[1] and awarded MIURA Tamaki Special Prize[2][3].
References
- General
- New Grove Dictionary of Opera Vol.3, NY: Macmillan 1972.
- Michael Scott, The Record of Singing, Vol.2 1914-1925, London: Duckworth 1979.
- "Japanese Soprano Sings Butterfly". The New York Times. October 29, 1915. Retrieved 2007-10-19.
- "三浦環 (Miura Tamaki)" (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-10-19.
- "Tamaki Miura's American Debut". The New York Times. October 7, 1915. Retrieved 2007-10-19.
- Tamaki Miura at IMDb
- Gino Dell'Ira : "Il Firmamento Lirico Pisano ", Grafica Zannini Pisa, Italia 1983, p. 82.
- Specific
- ^ Williams, Gordon. British Theatre in The Great War: a reevaluation pg. 271-273., New York: Continuum (2003)
- ^ Marguerite Martyn, "Japanese Prima Donna Woulld Wear American Evening Gowns If She Were Not So Little," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 13, 1915, page 6