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Thomas Schippers was one of the most talented of American conductors and was a particular champion of the music of Samuel Barber.

He showed musical gifts early. He played at a public piano recital at the age of six and was a church organist when he was fourteen. He continued his piano studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (1944-1945). He also studied privately with Olga Samaroff (1946-1947). He went on to Yale University, where he had some lessons in composition with Paul Hindemith.

In 1948 he took second prize in the Philadelphia Orchestra's young conductor's contest. He took a job as organist of the Greenwich Village Presbyterian Church in New York. He and group of other young musicians formed a group called the Lemonade Opera Company, which he conducted for several years.

In 1950 shortly after composer Gian-Carlo Menotti opened his opera The Consul. On Broadway, Schippers began conducting it shortly after the world premiere. This began a strong association with Menotti, and with Menotti's house-mate, Samuel Barber. This led to Schippers conducting the premiere performance of Menotti's short Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors, the first opera commissioned especially for television broadcast, on the NBC-TV network on December 24, 1951.

On April 9, 1952, he conducted Menotti's The Old Maid and the Thief at the New York City opera and remained on that company's conducting roster into 1954. He made his first appearances with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, La Scala in Milan, Italy, and at the Metropolitan Opera were in 1955. When Menotti organized his new Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds he chose Schippers as its music director.

He frequently guest conducted the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and made some classic recordings of music of Samuel Barber with them. When the orchestra made its historic tour of the Soviet Union under Leonard Bernstein in 1959, Schippers also went as its alternate conductor. It was he who was conducting at the Metropolitan Opera on March 4, 1960, when baritone Leonard Warren died on stage.

In 1962 he conducted the world premiere of the late Manuel de Falla's cantata Atlantida. In 1964 he made his first appearance conducting at the Bayreuth Festival. The Metropolitan Opera often called upon him to lead newer operas, including the world premiere of Barber's Antony and Cleopatra, which opened its new house in Lincoln Center.

In 1970 he accepted the position of Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, becoming one of the few American-born conductors to hold such a post at a major American orchestra. He also became a faculty member at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 1972.

His wife died of cancer in 1973. He was himself struck by lung cancer and unable to open the Cincinnati Orchestra's season in 1977. The management gave him the title of conductor laureate. He died before the year was over, and bequeathed the orchestra five million dollars. ~ Joseph Stevenson

Together with Tito Gobbi, Giuseppe Taddei best exemplified the great tradition of Italian baritones in the post-WWII era. In contrast to Gobbi's leaner instrument, Taddei's voice was large and round, occasionally prone to unsteadiness, but silken in timbre and always at the service of an incisive musical mind. Whether in a comic or dramatic role (from Leporello to Scarpia), Taddei found the right colors and expression to produce a complete characterization. His career was a lengthy one; in fact, his Metropolitan Opera debut came at the age of 69, when his still-full-voiced Falstaff was welcomed with, according to one New York newspaper, "a rafter-shaking ovation."

Taddei had his first experience of opera at the age of four or five when his mother took him to see Verdi's Otello. The boy soon began entertaining his father's friends with popular Italian songs of the day, and he was assigned solos by his elementary school teacher. When Taddei was eight or nine, he sang near the steps of a church to raise enough money to buy school books for seven of his poor schoolmates.

At age 19, Taddei won a vocal competition sponsored by the Rome Opera and shortly thereafter made his debut at that theater. The role was the Herald in Lohengrin, sung under the tutelage of conductor Tullio Serafin. Taddei acknowledged throughout his career the lessons imparted during coaching sessions at Serafin's home with major singers of the era. Several other emerging stars were soon to become good friends, including Italo Tajo and Tito Gobbi.

With Italy enmeshed in WWII, Taddei was conscripted in 1942 and sent to Yugoslavia. In a strange turn of events, he was captured by German troops and taken to a concentration camp where his fate remained a mystery for several months. Once released, Taddei found favor among the American troops and officers for whom he sang often, and their support greatly assisted the baritone in restarting his career. For example, a concert in Vienna led to a three-year contract there for the two Figaros, Amonasro, and Rigoletto. To entreaties that he come to America, however, Taddei responded that he wished to conquer Italy first, especially La Scala.

Other important engagements followed quickly. Taddei's London debut took place at the Cambridge Theatre (with Jay Pomeroy's Anglo-Italian company) as Rigoletto and Scarpia. His Salzburg debut in 1948 was as Mozart's Figaro and that same year, he sang at La Scala, beginning an association that lasted until 1961. In Italy, the singer performed extensively in the Wagnerian repertory, particularly the role of Hans Sachs. A series of Cetra recordings brought Taddei an American following long before he sang there. Taddei's American debut took place at San Francisco in 1957 where his Macbeth was welcomed as both well-sung and insightfully characterized. Similar praise was awarded his Scarpia.

Chicago heard Taddei for the first time in 1959 when his Barnaba menaced Eileen Farrell's Gioconda. London heard him at Covent Garden in the 1960s when he presented his Rigoletto, Macbeth, and Iago. His much-delayed Metropolitan Opera debut took place on September 25, 1985, when his Falstaff was embraced by the public and critics alike. Several previous attempts to engage him had been made by the Met, but requests for auditions the singer felt unnecessary, the wrong fees, the wrong timing and the wrong roles being offered had kept him away. Taddei repeated his plump knight two years later, once again demonstrating a superb theatrical sense and barely diminished vocal resources.

The vocal talents of Birgit Nilsson were first recognized when she began to sing in her church choir. She studied voice with Ragnar Blennow in Bastad and later at the Royal Music Academy Stockholm with Joseph Hislop and Arne Sunnegärdh. She made her opera debut at Stockholm where her first important role was Agatha in Der Freischütz, and in 1947 she sang Lady Macbeth in Verdi's Macbeth there. Her first important international appearance came in 1951 as Elettra in Mozart's Idomeneo at the Glyndebourne Festival. In 1952, she sang Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at Florence. Her first important appearances in Wagner operas came in 1953 at Stockholm where she sang Elisabeth in Tannhäuser and Isolde for the first time. This marked the start of the most important Wagnerian career of the second half of the 20th century. The following year she made her Bayrueth debut as Elsa in Lohengrin and in the same season sang Ortlinde in Die Walküre. She later appeared there as Isolde and as Brunnhilde. It was in Munich during the 1954-1955 season that she first sang Brunnhilde in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen and during the same season she sang her first Salome. In 1957, she sang the complete Ring cycle in London. At the Vienna State Opera she was heard as Elsa, Sieglinde, Elisabeth, Aida, and Sent. In 1957 she sang Leonore in Beethoven's Fidelio and the following season sang her first Turandot. She was also highly regarded for her interpretations of Elektra and the Barak's Wife in Die Frau ohne Schatten. Her other important Italian roles were Tosca, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera and Aida. She sang at all of the major opera centers of the world including Tokyo, Paris, Buenos Aires, Chicago, San Francisco, and Hamburg. Also she sang Turandot in Moscow with the Teatro alla Scala. At the age of 62, a performance of Strauss' Elektra was videotaped at the Metropolitan Opera House and broadcast around the world.

Because of her full schedule of opera performances, Nilsson did not sing in many concerts or recitals although early in her career she did sing the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven on several occasions, including one at Bayreuth. She did give some recitals including tours of Australia and Japan as well the major music centers of Europe and North America. Her recital programs concentrated on the German and Scandinavian songs, including some rarely heard pieces by Stenhammar. She often sang "I Could Have Danced All Night" as an encore.

The voice of Birgit Nilsson was like a laser beam that cut through the orchestra, unlike the voice of Kirsten Flagstad or Jessye Norman which are like a wall of sound. It was a large voice with such brilliance that at times it gave the sensation of being sharp of the intended pitch. She was a congenial colleague except for her long-standing difficulties with Franco Corelli regarding the length of the high Cs in Puccini's Turandot and with Herbert von Karjan. Happily all of her important roles have been preserved on recordings. As long as the operas of Wagner are performed, the voice of Birgit Nilsson will be remembered, and no one has sung Puccini's Turandot with more brilliance or security. Her autobiography, Mina minnesbilder, was published in 1977 at Stockholm.