La Gioconda

For a generation, Zinka Milanov owned the role of La Gioconda, the woman who kills herself rather than yield to the cruel Inquisition spy (Leonard Warren) as she saves the man she loves (Kurt Baum) and the woman he loves (Fedora Barbieri). With the great Cesare Siepi and the sumptuous-voiced Jean Madeira, this opera is filled with over-the-top emotion and white-hot drama.