1922 COSTA MILONA GREEK CARUSO SIGNED Pearl Fishers Mi par Udir/ L Africana 78

$

25

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I am currently selling a series of great Richard Wagner and classic European 78 rpm orchestral recordings on all the great European labels:

Berlin in the 1920s was a fertile ground for Greek Operatic singers, among them Costa Milona, Maria Perras, Constantin Stellakis and (visiting) Ulysse Lappas.

There voices have been preserved on many German recordings from that period.

Milona's recordings, which came out in Berlin since 1922, caused a great sensation, since his voice was compared to Enrico Caruso. Despite his gorgeous voice, he never had a great carreer, and much of his rather tragic biography remains in the dark

This is the famous ACOUSTIC RECORD of COSTA MILONAS 1922 debut on Record, in typical Parlophon fashion with the autographed signature in the dead wax  

  Pearl Fishers Mi par Udir/ L Africana O paradios

12" 78 rpm record

Condition: VERY GOOD PLUS PLUS rare fine scratch, plays E very quiet

A GREAT RECORDING

Costa Milona "The pocket Caruso"

COSTA MILONA

Although today he is virtually forgotten, Costa Milona was a recognized and well respected artist in his time as attested by his nickname "the pocket Caruso" and by the 167 commercial recordings of operatic arias, art songs and popular songs that he recorded in Berlin between 1922 and 1936.
The great majority of his recordings show why Milona's singing was held in high esteem. The listener readily detects all the trademarks of an exceptional singer: the voice is produced with sensitivity, exemplary breath control, exact phrasing and faultless intonation. Milona's lyric voice is stylish, ample, well rounded and well placed. It is capable of sustaining excursions into demanding spinto passages and high registers without any trace of compromise in the clarity of enunciation, in the roundness of tone or in the consistency of the vocal weight.
Milona's records reflect a small miracle of the human spirit, a wondrous leap across cultures that enabled the son of an impoverished peasant family from rural 19th century Greece to adopt so perfectly the aural images of the highest form of Italian art.
Costa (Konstantinos) Milona was born in Keratea, Greece (now a small town near Athens) in 1889. After his father died, Costa, who was then still a child, was sent to work for a french mining company near the town of Lavrion. A certain man by the name of Kiriakidis happened to hear Milona's singing and made it possible for him to attend the Athens Conservatory by paying his tuition and lodging fees. Milona attended the Conservatory from 1908 to 1918, studying Byzantine Church Music, singing and drama.
In April 1917, his first ever appearance in public as a singer was in a student concert (with arias from Boito's Mefistofele and Puccini's La Bohème). Until his graduation in1920 he gave a number of such concerts some of which were accompanied by Dimitri Mitropoulos at the piano. He graduated with excellent grades both in "singing" and "history of music". Before the year was over he left Greece with Conservatory scholarship and went to Italy, probably to Milan where he studied with maestro Giuseppe Borghi. Milona was never to return to his home country.
Very little is known of his professional career. It is not clear why he did not opt for a career in Italy, the natural location for his voice and repertoire.
In 1922 Milona left Milan and established himself in Berlin. There, from 1922 to 1945, he made all his records for German companies such as Parlophon, Homocord, Vox, Kristal and Reklame. It is through the radio broadcasts of these recordings that he became very popular in Germany and especially in Holland where he had a devoted fun club and where a record store was named after him.
During his stay in Berlin it seems that he also worked as voice teacher from 1935 to 1937.
Limited information is also available about his stage career which was hampered by his small stature (very much like the career of Josef Schmidt). The political climate in Germany did not help either.
In February 1923 he appeared at the Grand Théâtre de Monte Carlo, singing in "Tristan und Isolde" both the roles of the Sailor (as "Costa") and of the Shepherd (as "Milonas").
In 1934 we know of a concert for K.R,O. radio station in Holland with the Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra conducted by Henri van Goudoever. On June 24 and 26, 1938 there are two guest performances at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, as Rodolfo in "La Bohème", and on June 29 another guest appearance as Canio in "Pagliacci".
There are also unconfirmed performances in Frankfurt am Oder for the period from 1937 to 1942. On 20 July 1944 there was a recital in Strasbourg. His last artistic activities seem to have been some concerts in Berlin, in 1946.
On the 27th of March of 1949, Costa Milona died of heart failure and was buried at the Hendon Park Cemetery-Crematorium, London in grave nr. 62.259.

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The Grade (Excellent to Fair, I don't give Mint) refers to the WEAR of the record. Any other defects are stated separately

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