Milka Stojanovic ( born 1937 ) is a Serbian soprano opera singer, who achieved international success.
She sang with the Belgrade National Opera from 1960 and started her international career in 1962 when she appeared at the Edinburgh Festival.
She was a singer of the Metropolitan Opera and the permanent guest singer of the Bolshoi Theatre and the Vienna State Opera. Stojanović was voted the "Golden voice", one of the four most beautiful operatic voices of the 20th century and is listed as one of the greatest performers of the Verdian repertoire in the Villa Verdi.
She was generally known for the quality of her voice. In the late 1960s, the Opera News magazine conducred the survey among the American critics and audience, who chose the four "Golden voices" of the 20the century: Stojanović, Renata Tebaldi, Beniamino Gigli and Mario del Monaco. In Verdi's house, Villa Verdi, in the village of Sant'Agata in Italy, there is a book with the list of the greatest performers of the Verdian repertoire and Stojanović is listed in it.
Casta Diva, che inargenti
Queste sacre antiche piante
A noi volgi il bel sembiante
Senza nube e senza vel
Tempra, o Diva
Tempra tu de cori ardenti
Tempra ancora lo zelo audace
Spargi in terra quella pace
Che regnar tu fai nel ciel
Fine al rito, e il sacro bosco
Sia disgombro dai profani
Quando il Nume irato e fosco
Chiegga il sangue dei Romani
Dal Druidico delubro
La mia voce tuoner
Cadr punirlo io posso
Ma, punirlo, il cor non sa
Ah! bello a me ritorna
Del fido amor primiero
E contro il mondo intiero
Difesa a te sar
Ah! bello a me ritorna
Del raggio tuo sereno
E vita nel tuo seno
E patria e cielo avr
Ah, riedi ancora qual eri allora
Quando il cor ti diedi allora
Ah, riedi a me