Tamaki Miura, was a Japanese opera singer who performed as Cio-Cio-San in Puccini's Madama Butterfly.
Early life
Tamaki was born on February 22, 1884 in Tokyo, Japan from Shibata Mōho and Towa as their first daughter. Mōho, a music lover had his daughter learn Japanese traditional dance and music. In her high school days, Tamaki set her mind to live a professional musician life under influence of her musical teacher Sugiura Chika, an alumna of Tokyo Music School. In 1900 Tamaki entered Tokyo Music School. Just before entrance, she married with an army medical officer Fujii Zen'ichi since her father Mōho had urged strongly. They later divorced in 1907, after she graduated and started her professional career. At Tokyo Music School, Tamaki learned piano, singing, and violin. When Japanese people performed their first opera in 1903 at the auditorium of Tokyo Music School, Tamaki then its student took a role and got a good reputation. In 1904 she graduated Tokyo Music School and soon was employed as its faculty staff, first as an assistant and later as an associate professor. She exploited 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 Europe to perform and study along her husband. First they went to Berlin and then moved to London after Japan and Germany broke a war. In London she got a chance: 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 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.
