Miura Tamaki (三浦環)
Tamaki MIURA (February 22, 1884 in Tokyo-fu [Tokyo Prefecture] - May 26, 1946) was an opera singer who was probably the first to gain the international reputation in Japan. She was famous internationally because she was identified with 'Cho-Cho-San' (蝶々さん) in Giacomo Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" (蝶々夫人) which was her favorite and forte. Her original name was Tamaki SHIBATA, and then Tamaki FUJII.
She was born to a notary public Takeho SHIBATA as her father and Toha NAGATA as her mother at Shiba (Minato Ward, Tokyo). In 1900, she entered Tokyo Music School, and studied the piano under Rentaro TAKI.
In1903, she appeared in the first opera performance in Japan (she played the role of Euridice in "Orfeo ed Euridice.")
In 1904, after graduation, she worked as a supporting teacher in Tokyo Music School. Then she became an assistant professor. It is said that she instructed Kosaku YAMADA and others during this term. In 1911, she became a member of the Teikoku-gekijo Theater (the Imperial Garden Theater), and from the next year she went on being active as the prima donna. In 1913, she got married to Seitaro MIURA who had been adopted into the Shibata family and was a doctor, and then, she and her husband went to Germany to study in 1914. But to escape from the fires of World War I, she moved to England.
As a result of the success of her debut in England in 1915, she moved to America in 1916, and she performed the role of Cho-Cho-San in Boston for the first time.
Thanks to the favorable criticisms, she was subsequently able to perform "Madama Butterfly" and "Iris" (an opera) composed by Pietro Mascagni in New York, San Francisco, and Chicago (Tamaki MIURA was the first Japanese singer that was received to the Metropolitan Opera House.)
Then she returned to Europe, and performed with the Thomas Beecham Opera Company in London
In 1918, she went back to the United States of America, and performed "Madama Butterfly" and "Madame Chrysantheme" (お菊さん) composed by Andre Messager, but the latter got a bad reputation because it was considered as only a rehash of 'Cho-Cho-San'. In 1920, she made a guest appearance at the opera houses in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Florence, Rome, Milan, and Naples. In 1922, after she came back to Japan, she stayed in Nagasaki City and walked around to visit the places associated with "Madama Butterfly", and gave concerts. The bronze statue representing the figure of Tamaki MIURA playing the role of Cho-Cho-San is erected along with the bronze statue of Puccini in the Glover Garden in Nagasaki City.
In 1924, she went to America again, and appeared with San Carlo Opera Company. In 1925, she went to Chicago and gave the first performance of "Namiko-san" (浪子さん) presented by Aldo Franchetti. After that, she continued to make activities as a singer in Italy, and in 1935, she achieved the record of 2000 appearances in "Madama Butterfly" in Palermo. In 1936, she came back to Japan at last, and she was engaged in performing "Madama Butterfly" at Kabuki-za Theater, but after the musical activities were banned because World War II broke out soon, she moved with her mother to the neighborhood of Lake Yamanaka, where she spent the rest of her life calmly away from the fires of war.
As the composer himself praised very highly, 'Cho-Cho-San' was the role for which she gained a reputation, and she was regarded highly for her orthodox and exemplary performance. It is said that she was able to gain the success by means of her beautiful and natural carriage, which she might have mastered partly because she learned Classical Japanese dance in her girlhood. Thanks to her fame, she had great opportunities to perform with the star artists like Enrico Caruso and Jan Paderewski.
About the quality of her voice, various opinions have been handed down, such as 'her voice had something feeble and unreliable' and 'her voice was rather weak in loudness.'
Besides, in her own book "'Enka' no Susume" (Recommendation of 'Japanese ballad'), a vocal musician Yumi AIKAWA says 'any of the pronunciation of the lyrics, the vocalization, the musical interval, the rhythm, and so on is never praiseworthy' as an evaluation after she listened to the records of MIURA's performance, and presents a question as to 'the legend that Tamaki MIURA was a prima donna of the world' which many Japanese have cherished. Among MIURA's famous disciples are Nobuko HARA and Toshiko SEKIYA.