Tamaki Miura

Tamaki Miura (born Shibata Tamaki on February 22, 1884, in Tokyo, Japan; died May 26, 1946) was a Japanese opera singer best known for her performances as Cio-Cio-San in Puccini's Madama Butterfly. Born the first daughter of Shibata Mōho and Shibata Towa (née Nagata), she was introduced to Japanese traditional dance and music at an early age by her father, who was a music lover. Her high school music teacher, Sugiura Chika, an alumna of Tokyo Music School, influenced her decision to pursue a professional career in music.

Shortly before enrolling at Tokyo Music School in 1900, Miura married army medical officer Fujii Zen'ichi at her father's urging. At the school she studied piano, singing, and violin. When Japan staged its first opera performance in 1903 at the Tokyo Music School auditorium, she took part as a student and earned recognition. She graduated in 1904 and joined the faculty, serving first as an assistant and later as an associate professor. Her marriage to Fujii ended in divorce in 1907, after she had begun her professional career.

Miura made her professional operatic debut in Tokyo in 1911. In 1913 she married a young physician named Miura, and the following year the couple traveled to Europe, where she performed and continued her studies. They went first to Berlin, then relocated to London after Japan and Germany entered a state of war during World War I. In London, director Vladimir Rosing cast her as Cio-Cio-San for his Allied Opera Season, held at the London Opera House in May and June 1915. That autumn she brought the role to the United States for the first time, performing with the Boston Opera Company in Chicago and also singing in St. Louis, Missouri, in October of that year. Favorable notices led to additional performances in Madama Butterfly and Mascagni's Iris in New York City, San Francisco, and Chicago before she returned to London to work with the Beecham company.

In 1918 Miura came back to the United States for two seasons, performing both Madama Butterfly and André Messager's Madame Chrysanthème, the latter of which received poor reviews. In 1920 she appeared as a guest performer at opera houses in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Florence, and Rome. Returning to Japan from that tour, she stopped in Nagasaki in 1922 to visit locations associated with the opera and to give a concert. In 1924 she returned to the United States to perform with the San Carlo Opera Company, and two years later traveled to Chicago to create the title role in Aldo Franchetti's Namiko-San.

It was the production of Namiko-San that brought Miura to Broadway in 1927. Following her Broadway appearance, she participated in various tours and performed in Italy, including a March 1931 engagement at the Teatro Verdi in Pisa alongside tenor Armando Bini, as well as performances in Sassuolo, Modena, Livorno, Florence, Lucca, Pistoia, Turin, Novi Ligure, and Rimini. She returned to Japan in 1932. In 1940 she assisted Arai Wagorō with the production and distribution of Madame Butterfly's Illusion.

Miura died on May 26, 1946, in Japan. A statue of her, alongside one of Puccini, stands in Nagasaki's Glover Garden. The Mt. Fuji International Opera Competition of Shizuoka, held by Shizuoka Prefecture, has commemorated her legacy through the Miura Tamaki Special Prize.