Description

COSTA MILONA (KERATEA, 3 FEBRUARY, 1889 – LONDON, 27 MARCH, 1949)

 

 

 

 

A spinto tenor of note during the 1920s and 1930s, he is remembered principally for his recordings. Born Konstantinos Mylonas into poverty, he lost his father at an early age and was sent to work in the mines. Heard singing by a well-off gentleman, he was sponsored to the Athens Conservatory where he did well and gained recital experience in concerts sometimes accompanied by a young Dimitri Mitropoulos on the piano. Upon his 1920 graduation he relocated to Milan where he refined his art, Italianized his name, and took-up with a married Italian lady. Milona made 1923 appearances in Monte Carlo as both a Sailor and a Shepherd from R. Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” but spent most of the 1920s in the German capital earning praise in such roles as Rodolfo in G. Puccini’s “La Boheme” and the tragic clown Canio of R. Leoncavallo’s “I Pagliacci” while recording for various companies. He was seen at the Vienna State Opera in 1932, worked as a voice teacher in Berlin during the mid 1930s, and sang at the Deutsche Opera Berlin as late as 1938. After spending the war years in Berlin, he moved to London in 1946, his way paid by a wealthy English lady as by then his voice was used-up and he was broke. Milona died of heart disease after a period of steady decline.

 

Chronology of some appearances

 

1923 Monte Carlo Grand-Théâtre Tristan und Isolde (sailor)

1923 Monte Carlo Grand-Théâtre Tristan und Isolde (sailor)

1938 Berlin Deutsches Oper La Bohème (Rodolfo)

1938 Berlin Deutsches Oper Pagliacci (Canio)

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

I gynaika tou dromou (Chatziapostolou) Kardia pou apo agapi orfani B21521 101005 Parlophon, Berlin, 18 March 1929

I proti  agapi (Chatziapostolou) I kardia tis manas B21526 101015 Parlophon, Berlin, 20 June 1929

Ideale (Tosti) 3-8531 51610-I Homocord, Berlin 1924-06-16

Ideale (Tosti) B12026 36670 Parlophon, Berlin 1928-11-07

Il trovatore (Verdi) Di quella pira 3573 3263B Vox, Berlin, June 1926

Jocelyn (Godard) Nascosti in quest’asil (Berceuse) 3-8535 51611 Homocord, Berlin 1924-06-11

Karava anigi ta ftera (Lavrangaas) B21518 101001 Parlophon, Berlin, 18 March 1929

Kardia pisti (= Vertrautes Herz) (Barthélemy) B21522 101007 Parlophon, Berlin, 19 March 1929

La forza del destino (Verdi) O tu che in seno P9315 2-20816-2 Parlophon, Berlin, 13 June 1928

La traviata (Verdi) Dei miei bollenti spiriti P1530 2-5942 Parlophon, Berlin, 9 June 1922

La traviata (Verdi) Dei miei bollenti spiriti unpublished 2-84081 Parlophon, Berlin, 19 June 1930

L’addio a Napoli (Cottrau) B 7796 119055 Parlophon, Berlin 1930-06-20

L’Africaine (Meyerbeer) O paradiso B8532 51618 Homocord, Berlin, 17 June 1924

L’elisir d’amore (Donizetti) Una furtiva lagrima P1631 2-5818 Parlophon, Berlin, 4 April 1922

Lolita (Buzzi-Peccia) B17537 36498 Parlophon, Berlin, 31 October 1928