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Claudio Scimone was one of the international leaders of the chamber music and early music movements. He studied with Dimitri Mitropoulos and Franco Ferrara, and also studied early music and interpretation. In 1959 he formed the chamber orchestra I Solisti Veneti in Padua and remained associated with it for decades. It quickly achieved a reputation for excellence, and in 1975, Scimone took the orchestra for its first appearance at the annual Salzburg Festival in Austria, only to be invited back every year. He also led the orchestra on several world tours, appearing in 60 countries. Although the orchestra specializes in early music, Scimone was also instrumental in commissioning works by Cristobal Halffter, Franco Donatoni, Marius Constant, and Sylvanno Bussotti, among others.

Meanwhile, Scimone carried on an additional career as one of the most respected musicologists researching Italian music from the end of the Renaissance through Rossini. He prepared and edited the first modern editions of Tartini's then practically forgotten violin concertos and sonatas and has prepared editions of many Vivaldi operas. One of his most sensational modern premieres was his recording of Vivaldi's Orlando furioso in 1977, with Marilyn Horne and Victoria de Los Angeles, and his live performance of it in 1979 at the Teatro Filharmonico in Verona. He prepared a critical edition of Rossini's Maometto II and made first recordings or premiere modern performances of several Rossini operas. He was the author of an acclaimed treatise on performing practice, Segno, Significato, Interpretazione. He recorded for the Erato label, among others, and has more than 250 performances recorded under his baton.

In addition to concerts with I Solisti Veneti, he conducted at Covent Garden, the Houston Grand Opera, Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, and the Verona Arena. At the last-named of those, in 1996 he performed the long-forgotten opera Les Danaïdes by Antonio Salieri. He also conducted such leading orchestras as the O.R.T.F. Philharmonic; Melbourne, Tokyo, Houston, Montreal, Ottawa, and Dallas symphony orchestras; the Philharmonia of London; Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra; and the Royal Philharmonic of London. He received the Grand Prix du Disque, a Grammy Award, and the Montreux World Disc Prize.

Katia Ricciarelli, in her prime, possessed a radiant lyric soprano voice with an individually sweet timbre, and a lovely stage presence that complemented her voice. However, like all too many singers, she became a textbook example of what happens when a voice is pushed beyond its limits. During her best years, she was one of the most touching Giuliettas (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Desdemonas, and Anna Bolenas on the operatic stage, and had a special affinity for Rossini's music, enjoying great success in such roles as Bianca (Bianca e Falliero), Elena (La donna del lago), and Amenaide (Tancredi).

She came from a very poor family and after graduating from school, worked to afford the time and money to study at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice, where she worked primarily with Iris Adami Corradetti, herself a noted lyric soprano. Upon graduation, she made her operatic debut as Mimì in Puccini's La bohème, in Mantua, Italy. Her appearance in Cherubini's Anacréon the next year in Siena created a small sensation, followed by a greater one when she won the Parma Verdi competition, followed in 1971 by her winning the Voce Verdiane competition. Largely on the strengths of these triumphs, in 1972, she debuted at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Lucrezia in Verdi's I due Foscari, and at the Rome Opera as Verdi's Giovanna d'Arco. In 1974, she made her Covent Garden debut as Mimì. Her Met debut was also in La bohème in 1975, and her La Scala debut was in 1976 as Suor Angelica in Puccini's Il trittico.

Like many singers, her voice became larger as she matured, allowing her to take on such roles as Verdi's Desdemona and Luisa Miller. However, over-encouraged by this, and also guided by Karajan, who often pitted essentially lyric voices against heavy roles, in the early 1980s, she began to sing roles that were considerably too dramatic, such as Tosca, Aida, and even Turandot (though only in the recording studio.) By the 1990s, while it had not lost all of its luster, her voice was no longer as limpid as it had been, both the top and middle were wobbly, and her pitch had become frequently imprecise. Some of the theaters where she had scored her major triumphs, such as La Scala, received her subsequent performances very badly.

Among her recordings, a collection of arias made in 1979 and 1980 (Ermitage) catches her still in fine voice, although some strain does show in the more dramatic roles. In complete operas, her recording of La donna del lago (Sony) is excellent. She also appeared as Desdemona in the 1986 film of Otello, directed by Franco Zeffirelli.

José Carreras, one of the legendary "Three Tenors," was born Josep Carreras (Josep is his Catalan name, the equivalent of the Castilian Spanish José) in Barcelona in 1946. He began singing at a very early age; family lore holds that he serenaded passengers on a voyage home from Argentina when he was only five. He was inspired by the film biography The Great Caruso, starring Mario Lanza, and is said to have learned each and every aria contained within.

After a mere two years of voice lessons, the young Carreras sang "La donna è mobile" from Verdi's Rigoletto on Spanish National Radio -- a performance that has been preserved and is included in one of his video biographies. He made his professional operatic debut at the age of eleven in Manuel de Falla's El retablo de Maese Pedro. This unique opera, written originally for a puppet theater, has as one of its primary roles an exceptionally difficult part for boy soprano -- a part so challenging that it is rarely sung by a child, usually taken instead by an adult mezzo-soprano.

After his voice changed, he took up studies with Francisco Puig, then with Juan Ruax, whom Carreras now regards as his "artistic father." At Ruax's encouragement, he auditioned at the Barcelona Liceo and landed the small role of Flavio in Bellini's Norma. This small break would have enormous consequences, since it brought him into contact with the already-famous Montserrat Caballé, who was very taken with the young tenor and recommended him to her management. The resulting engagement, opposite Caballé in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia as Gennaro, is now generally considered his real debut as a tenor, and helped to launch his career.

Carreras made his American debut in 1972 at the New York City Opera as Pinkerton in Puccini's Madama Butterfly. His Covent Garden debut (1974) was as Alfredo in La Traviata, and his first appearance at the Salzburg Festival was in Verdi's Requiem at the request of maestro Herbert von Karajan. He first appeared at the Vienna State Opera as the Duke in Rigoletto (1974), at the Met the same year as Cavaradossi in Tosca, and as Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera in 1975.

By the age of 28 he had already sung 24 different roles in the leading opera houses of Europe and the Americas. This busy schedule gave rise to some controversy: critics sometimes found his voice strained and complained that he might be overtaxing himself. It was not immediately recognized that this tiredness masked the onset and development of the blood disease leukemia, not diagnosed until 1987, when it had reached an acute phase.

It was during his treatment that the Three Tenors phenomenon was born. Having competed ruthlessly with both Domingo and Pavarotti for ascendancy in the world of opera, he now struck up genuine friendships with both men, who supported him during his illness. Their first concert together was conceived as a fundraiser for the newly created Josep Carreras International Leukemia Foundation. It drew a live audience in the tens of thousands and an international viewership of tens of millions. The resulting records and videos were phenomenal sellers.

Carreras is widely represented in operatic and concert recordings, numerous crossover recordings of various styles, and a large number of videos. He has over 50 complete opera recordings. His video biography, A Life Story, which included his battle with leukemia, won an international Emmy award.

Basses are not typically the superstars of the operatic world, but Samuel Ramey is an exception to that rule. Though his voice does not have the sonority of a Nicolai Ghiaurov or a Boris Christoff, his instrument is remarkable for its easy flexibility -- dealing effortlessly with long runs, ornaments, and leaps -- and its brilliant intensity. His stage presence (particularly when portraying "devil" figures) is vivid and lively, aided by an attractive physique and a dancer-like grace. He and the various stage directors have tended to emphasize these aspects, giving rise to the comment that "Ramey's Mefistofele has everything one could desire, except possibly a shirt."

While he was attending Kansas State University, Ramey's interest in operatic music was awakened when a friend suggested that he audition for a summer program at Colorado's Central City Opera. He was accepted and got to sing in the chorus for two productions. Soon after, he began to study avidly, first at Wichita State University and later in New York with Armen Boyajian; he made his professional debut in 1973 as Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen at the New York City Opera. His Glyndebourne debut was in 1976 as Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro.

A 1980 performance of Rossini's Semiramide at Aix-en-Provence, opposite Monserrat Caballé and Marilyn Horne, made him an overnight sensation. For critics and audience alike, this new bass with the ideal power and agility was a welcome surprise. His La Scala debut came the next year as Mozart's Figaro, followed by his Covent Garden debut in 1982, in the same role. In 1984, he made his Metropolitan debut as Argante in Rinaldo. He has been a regular at the Pesaro Rossini Festival. Many Rossini bass roles had become "character parts" over the years -- performed more in parlando than actually sung (partly for comedy, partly because of the extreme difficulty of the roles) -- and Ramey determined to sing these as written. His instinctive gift for comedy without clownishness has served him well in these parts, as well as in his various diabolical roles, most of which contain a good deal of sardonic humor. He performs arias from his darker roles in his "Date with the Devil" concerts.

Later in his career, as his voice became darker and weightier, Ramey slowly began to drop the florid Rossini and Handel roles in favor of the heavier Verdi roles, such as King Philip in Don Carlo, Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra, and even Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov. He has also performed twentieth century repertoire widely, especially noted for his Reverend Olin Blitch in Floyd's Susannah and Nick Shadow in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress.

Ramey is the most recorded bass in history, with dozens of recordings to his credit. These range from nearly all of his operatic roles to solo recordings of arias and song, and even some musical theater. He has appeared on the TV series Live from Lincoln Center and in TV and video recordings of many of his roles.

Among the best-known London choral groups for many years, the Ambrosian Singers was particularly notable for its work in opera and was sometimes known as the Ambrosian Opera Chorus or Ambrosian Light Opera Chorus. The group emerged from the early music movement in Britain after World War II, but it expanded greatly in both size and repertory. The Ambrosian Singers had a large recording catalog that included several well-loved holiday releases. The group disbanded in 2009, but the choir's music has continued to appear in reissues.

The Ambrosian Singers were founded in 1951 by musicologist and violist Denis Stevens, who had been involved since 1949 in developing Renaissance and early Baroque music programs for the BBC, and tenor John McCarthy. Their intent was to make available a small professional choir that would give authentic performances of medieval and Renaissance choral polyphony and, eventually, to make recordings of music in this tradition. This was something to which the large British university and cathedral choirs of the time were unsuited. The group was soon hired to provide music for a BBC radio series, The History of Western Music. This allowed the singers to stretch their wings in repertory other than early music and broaden the group's aims. Stevens departed in 1955 for a career in academia, but a group of members organized themselves under McCarthy's leadership, performing under various names. While McCarthy served as choral director for the London Symphony Orchestra in the early '60s, they were called the London Symphony Orchestra Chorus, but this group was essentially the Ambrosian Singers.

The Ambrosian Singers' recording career dates back to the '50s; they made an early appearance backing countertenor Alfred Deller on his 1957 recording of Monteverdi's Il Ballo delle Ingrate and Lamento d'Arianna on the Vanguard Classics label. Both opera and film music were heavily represented in the group's catalog; in the latter field, they appeared on both original film soundtracks, such as that by composer Vangelis for Chariots of Fire (1981), and new recordings of older soundtrack music. The Ambrosian Singers were also featured as the primary artists on choral releases of their own, including an album of Beethoven's late choral music with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the London Symphony Orchestra; that album appeared in 1975 on the CBS label and was reissued in 1988.

The Ambrosian Singers were a frequent presence in major British opera performances and recordings for many years. They released several Christmas recordings of their own and also backed a diverse set of pop stars ranging from Julie Andrews to Talk Talk to Grace Jones. A unique feature of the Ambrosian Singers was that the group generally did not have a fixed membership; instead, there were some 700 singers who could be called upon for projects as needed. Many of the most famous British opera and art song performers, including soprano Heather Harper, mezzo-soprano Janet Baker, and tenor Robert Tear, passed through the group at one time or another. McCarthy remained the group's director, and the Ambrosian Singers slowed their activities as his health deteriorated; they disbanded completely after his death in 2009. However, Ambrosian Singers material continued to appear on recordings into the 2020s; by 2024, the group had appeared on more than 500 releases, including a 2024 album devoted to Neville Marriner, The Distinguished Conductor. ~ James Manheim