The title-role in Ponchielli’s La Gioconda was a favourite with Zinka Milanov throughout her career, and this 1960 broadcast from New Orleans has been issued to mark her centenary last May. A couple of years earlier, Milanov had made a studio recording of the opera for RCA, in which she was partnered by Giuseppe di Stefano as Enzo. She also broadcast the part from the New York Met seven times, and tapes of at least two of these have been issued on CD; the earliest, from 1939, has Giovanni Martinelli as her tenor (on Arkadia), while another, from 1946, has Richard Tucker (on the Met’s own label).

One of the most famous moments in Milanov’s performance used to be her leap up to a pianissimo high B flat in the phrase “Enzo adorato! Ah, come t’amo”. Here she lunges at the note, doesn’t quite get it, takes a little breath and finishes off the line to a polite round of applause. It’s disappointing, but there is much better to come, and by the final act “Suicidio!”, the trio with Enzo and Laura, and then her death scene, Milanov clearly has her audience by the throat. Her supporting cast is interesting. The Italian tenor Giuseppe Gismondo enjoyed some success around this time; he brings down the house with “Cielo e mar” and elsewhere sings with considerable passion. Cesare Bardelli is a snarling Barnaba, and declaims “O monumento” with a good deal of menace. The aristocratic couple, Laura and Alvise, are sung by Irene Kramarich and William Wildermann, she rather squally in “L’amo come il fulgor del creato”, he splendidly secure in “Ombre di mia prosapia”.

A stalwart member of the ensemble in New Orleans, Wildermann sang there for 44 years. Mary McMurray as La Cieca makes the most of “Voce di donna”. Although the sound quality is a bit peculiar (the microphones were hanging over the stage, so every time the curtain is down but the orchestra is playing it sounds very muffled), Renato Cellini conducts a splendidly red-blooded account of the score.

As a bonus, there is a third CD, containing extracts from two broadcasts with Milanov from 1953. Bardelli was also the Barnaba then, and the diva’s B flat is in a quite different class. This issue is strictly for Milanov devotees, or those researching the history of opera in New Orleans. If you want a great La Gioconda, stick to the Decca version with Tebaldi and Bergonzi, conducted by Gardelli.