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Fritz Reiner was a legend among conductors. Universally admired for his music-making, widely disliked for his aggressive and exacting temperament, and survived by a legacy of definitive recorded performances, he was largely responsible for the artistic ascendancy of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and exerted considerable influence on generations of musicians.

Born in Budapest in 1888, he studied piano with his mother and, at the age of 15, entered the Franz Liszt Academy -- an institution that also boasts Bela Bartók, Zoltan Kodály, Ernst von Dohnányi, George Szell, Eugene Ormandy, Georg Solti and Antal Dorati as graduates. Reiner gained conducting experience at a number of regional opera houses before eventually returning to Budapest in 1911 to serve at the city's Volksoper, where his reputation as a conductor of special abilities finally emerged.

In 1914 Reiner accepted a position at the Dresden Court Opera, where he formed a fortuitous relationship with both the conductor Arthur Nikisch and the composer Richard Strauss; Reiner would eventually give the German premier of Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten, and would remain a devoted interpreter of the composer's works throughout his career. The economic chaos and emergent anti-Semitism that followed the First World War made Reiner anxious to leave Europe, and an invitation (in 1921) to become the music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra provided just the right opportunity. From that point onward, Reiner's career was firmly rooted in the United States, where he became a citizen in 1928.

After resigning his post at Cincinnati Reiner became a professor of conducting at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where his students included both the young Leonard Bernstein and Lukas Foss; Bernstein, in particular, credited Reiner with a great deal of influence in his development.

In 1938 he became the director of the Pittsburgh Symphony -- one of several positions that established Reiner as a fine builder of orchestras, with a talent for steering ensembles toward new levels of quality and success. A number of Reiner's well-known recordings stem from his tenure there. Guest appearances during his Pittsburgh years include those at Covent Garden and the San Francisco Symphony. From Pittsburgh he moved to the Metropolitan opera, where he remained on the conductor roster until 1953; his advocacy of Strauss' operas was especially strong there, and his performances of Salome and Elektra number among the most memorable evenings in the Met's history.

1953 was a watershed year for Reiner, since it was then that he assumed the directorship of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. This was to become his signature partnership, and the position that would establish his lasting legacy. His relationship with the orchestra was never a smooth one -- he was known for hostility and impatience in rehearsal, and for firing musicians for mistakes in concerts -- but he undeniably raised the ensemble from its status as a good American orchestra to that of one of the finest in the world. Unlike a number of other prominent conductors who excelled in narrow corners of the musical canon, Reiner maintained his excellent standards and clarifying precision throughout an especially broad repertory that crossed boundaries of nationality and style. He was as renowned for his performances of new works, such as Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra -- a piece that Reiner himself commissioned from the dying composer -- and Alan Hovhaness' Mysterious Mountain as he was for his Mahler, Strauss and Haydn. His tenure in Chicago also resulted in what was then an unprecedented volume of fine recordings, some of which still remain as favorites, despite the improved fidelity of modern competitors. Reiner resigned from Chicago in 1962 (after only nine seasons), and died the following year of heart failure.

Steber was one of the most important sopranos in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s, with a sweet, yet full voice and outstanding versatility. Her recitals were practically vocal pentathlons for their wide range of styles and vocal demands, and the day she sang Desdemona in Verdi's Otello for a Met matinee and Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte that evening is still legendary. She is perhaps most famous for her creation of the title role in Samuel Barber's Vanessa (actually as a substitute for Sena Jurinac), and for commissioning his Knoxville: Summer of 1915. In addition to opera and recitals, she was a frequent guest on The Voice of Firestone's television broadcasts. However, her career outlasted her voice, and most of her later appearances and recordings were gravely technically flawed.

Her mother was an accomplished amateur singer who strongly encouraged her to study and sing in school and community shows. She entered the New England Conservatory of Music, originally intending to major in piano, but her voice teacher, William Whitney, persuaded her to focus on singing instead. Her opera debut was in 1936 in a WPA production of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman, a demanding role indeed for a 21-year-old. She won the 1940 Metropolitan Auditions of the Air and made her Met debut later that year as Sophie in Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier. Her easy upper range, coupled with a rich, smoothly produced lower voice made her a natural for Mozart roles such as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Pamina in The Magic Flute, and even Konstanze in the Abduction from the Seraglio, with its vocal pyrotechnics. As her voice matured, she sang some of the spinto roles in both the German and Italian repertoire, including Tosca, Desdemona, Elsa in Lohengrin, and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier. She also sang Marie in the first Metropolitan production of Alban Berg's Wozzeck in 1959. Her relationship with the Met was not an easy one, for many reasons on both sides, and she turned her attention more and more toward recitals and concerts during the 1960s. She and her husband opened and managed a record label, ST/AND (combining their names), but when they attempted to expand, it was a dismal flop. She made some appearances on Broadway, mostly in supporting parts, and also gave one of the notorious bathhouse concerts in New York in 1973.

During the late 1920s and the 1930s, a period remembered as one of the golden ages of Wagnerian singing, Emanuel List (born Emanuel Fleissig) was counted as among the finest of basses and specialized in the villain roles in the operas of Wagner and others. He was tall and physically imposing, adding a commanding and dangerous element to his rich, deep, and dark singing tone.

He started his singing career as a boy soprano in the chorus and some solo work on the roster of the Theater an der Wein in Vienna. His family moved to the United States, where he was a vaudeville singer while studying voice with Josiah Zuro.

He returned to Vienna in 1920 for more training and to further his singing career, and soon made a debut at the Volksoper in 1922 in the major role of Mephistopheles. He moved to Berlin in 1923 to accept an engagement as a member of the Charlottenburg opera company, and joined the company of the Berlin State Opera (Staatsoper) in 1925. In the same year, he made a Covent Garden debut as Pogner in Die Meistersinger. He remained a member of the roster of the Staatsoper, making a specialty of such Wagnerian roles as King Mark (Tristan und Isolde), Hunding (Walküre) and Hagen (Götterdämmerung), as the implacable high priest Ramfis in Verdi's Aida, and in his most famous role, Baron Ochs in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier. He began singing in the Salzburg Festival in Austria, taking the Mozart roles of Osmin (Abduction from the Seraglio), and the Commendatore (Don Giovanni), and Rocco in Beethoven's Fidelio, in addition to King Mark. He appeared in the 1933 Bayreuth Festival as Hunding and Hagen, in addition to Fafner as the giant in Rheingold and as the voice of Fafner's transformed shape of the Dragon in Siegfried. As a Jew, he prudently left German in 1933 and made his debut that year at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as the Landgrave in Tannhäuser. He was a member of the Met company from that year until 1950, and also sang regularly at the opera houses of San Francisco, Chicago, and Buenos Aires, and became a naturalized American citizen. Shortly before retiring, he made his first appearance in nearly 20 years in Berlin in 1950.

Among his famous recordings are performances as Hunding in the cutting of the complete first act of Die Walküre, and as King Mark in the equally famous 1936 Melchior-Flagstad Tristan und Isolde.

Mezzo-soprano Risë Stevens was one of the most prominent American opera stars during World War II and for nearly two decades afterwards. She was of Norwegian descent; her original name was Risë Steenberg. She showed early promise as a singer and studied with a teacher named Orry Prado. After graduating from high school, she landed a job with the New York Little Theater Opera Company. After that company went bankrupt, she became a dress model.

Anna Schoen-René, a voice teacher at the Juilliard School, offered her free singing lessons. Risë received a tempting job offer from the Metropolitan Opera Company, but judged she was not ready and declined it. Instead, she went to Europe to hone the various crafts of an opera singer. These included classes in stagecraft with Herbert Graf and continued voice training with Marie Gutheil-Schoder at the Salzburg Mozarteum.

In 1936 she accepted conductor Georg Szell's offer of a contract with the Prague Opera, where she was listed as a contralto. There she was coached in standard contralto and mezzo repertory by Herbert Graf, and appeared in Prague, Vienna, and in Cairo, Egypt (where she traveled as part of a Viennese-based opera group). She traveled to the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, continuing to mature and to draw increasing attention. She finally sang with the Met in one of its appearances in Philadelphia, as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, received a contract with the company, and made her New York Met debut on December 17, 1938, as Mignon.

In 1939, she married Walter Surovy, a Czech actor, who managed her career. She debuted at Glyndebourne in 1939, and in 1940 at the San Francisco Opera. In 1941 she sang opposite Nelson Eddy in the Hollywood film The Chocolate Soldier, and appeared in Bing Crosby's film Going My Way (1944), in which she sang the Habañera from Carmen. This led to her first actual stage performance as Carmen at the Met, December 28, 1945. For some time she virtually owned the role at the Met and sang it there 75 times. She debuted at Milan's La Scala in 1954.

Stevens retired from the Metropolitan in 1961, and retired altogether from singing in 1964. Shortly after her resignation from the Met, the company went through one of the worst crises in its history. General Director Rudolf Bing cancelled the entire 1961-1962 season after the company's major unions reached an impasse. Stevens sent a telegram to President John F. Kennedy outlining the importance of the Metropolitan to the United States and the world, and requested his intervention. The president honored her request, and personally persuaded the sides to accept the Secretary of Labor, Arthur Goldberg, to arbitrate their disputes. The season was saved.

Stevens' mezzo-voice quality was unusual: it was warm, light, and lyrical. This suited her to many of the important "trouser" roles. In addition to Octavian, she sang Mozart's Cherubino and Prince Orlovsky in Fledermaus. Other of her favorite roles were Dorabella, Delilah, Orpheus, Laura (La Gioconda), and Carmen, her most famous role.

After she retired from the Met stage, she became director of the company's new Metropolitan Opera National Company, a touring group providing opportunities for young singers and conductors, as well as designers and directors to participate in opera on a steady professional level. She was appointed to the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music in 1975, and was president of the Mannes College of Music in New York (1975-1978). She was again associated with the Metropolitan from 1980 to 1988 as director of its National Council Auditions.

At a time when many high sopranos offered nothing more than a steam whistle sound, the cool, pure timbre of Erna Berger's instrument fell upon the ears as a balm. Though not large, her instrument had sufficient carrying power to be heard in Europe's largest theaters and not get lost even in the open spaces of the old Metropolitan Opera where she sang briefly beginning in 1949. Trim and petite, she remained a credible stage figure into her fifties and retained to the end of her career the firmness and clarity of tone which had brought her acclaim at an early age. She was an accomplished recitalist and concert singer as well, excelling in the art of German song and such concert works as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

Born near Dresden, Berger moved with her family to Paraguay when very young, and was reared there on a farm cleared from the jungle. In her late teens, she worked as a governess to earn funds which would allow her to study voice in Dresden. She trained there with Melizza Hirzel and, in auditioning for a scholarship, was heard by conductor Fritz Busch who engaged her forthwith. Berger made her opera debut at the Dresden Opera in 1925 as the First Boy in Die Zauberflöte. There, she sang numerous roles, many of them in the Italian and French repertories. When she moved on to Berlin, her reputation grew enormously and conductors throughout Europe began to regard her as indispensable for many of the coloratura roles, such as Zerbinetta, the Queen of the Night, and Konstanze.

From 1930 to 1933, Berger was engaged at the Bayreuth Festival, her Shepherd in Tannhäuser and Woodbird in Siegfried being regarded as definitive. The former role is preserved in the legendary Tannhäuser recorded at Bayreuth in 1930 with Maria Müller, Herbert Janssen, and Ivar Andrésen. Her Salzburg debut came in 1932 when she sang Blondchen in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail; she continued to sing there until 1954 when her Zerlina still appeared and sounded youthful.

On April 30, 1934, she appeared for the first time on a London stage when her Marzelline, described as "enchanting," was heard with Lotte Lehmann, Franz Völker, and Alexander Kipnis. Her Woglinde in Das Rheingold was likewise praised as was her Woodbird. A return engagement was arranged for the following year and, in 1938, Berger was finally available to perform Konstanze (Sir Thomas Beecham has insisted on her). She also sang the Queen of the Night and Sophie in Rosenkavalier. Although her Konstanze was deemed lightweight, it was, according to Francis Toye, "technically first rate." Similar views were expressed about her Queen: well sung, if somewhat lacking the daemonic element. Her Sophie, however, brought no reservations whatever. When Berger returned in 1949, her Queen was more fully appreciated and the public and the critics received both her Sophie and Gilda with unreserved delight.

Rosenkavalier was the opera in which Berger was introduced to the Metropolitan Opera audience on November 21, 1949. Described by Irving Kolodin as "a wonderfully pure, well-phrased Sophie," Berger went on to sing other such specialties as Gilda and the Queen of the Night. From composer/critic Virgil Thomson she won this praise: "She is one of the great sources of musical satisfaction in our time."

Martha Lipton had a major American operatic career as a mezzo-soprano and alto, appearing nearly 300 times at the Metropolitan Opera House between 1944 and 1961.

She studied at the Juilliard, where she debuted as Pauline in Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades in 1941. She first sang with the New York City Opera in 1944 as Nancy in Flotow's Martha, and in the same year at the Met as Siebel in Gounod's Faust.

She was frequently heard on Metropolitan Opera Saturday broadcasts, and several of those have been released in restored sonics on the Naxos Historical label (generally not available in the United States).

She also recorded for Columbia Records. One of her best known performances was the classic Handel Messiah recording with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and she appeared in Leonard Bernstein's first recording of Mahler's Third Symphony, one of the first stereo tapings of that work. Another classic recording in which she appeared was the Fritz Reiner-led recording of Verdi's Falstaff, and she also sang the monaural recording of Copland's Emily Dickinson Songs and in his opera The Second Hurricane.

Notable premieres in which Lipton participated include the first American performance of Hugo Wolf's Der Corregidor in a concert realization in New York, and she created the role of Augusta in Douglas Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe at the Central City Opera House, Central City, Colorado, on July 7, 1956, repeating the performance the following April with the New York City Opera.

Lipton also appeared in Europe, particularly in Paris and Vienna. Since 19690 she has been a Professor of Singing at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where, faculty rosters indicate, she teaches part-time.

Giuseppe di Stefano began to study voice as he trained for the priesthood in a Jesuit seminary in Milan; his teachers included Luigi Montesanto and Mariano Stabile. Mobilized into the Fascist army at the age of 19, di Stefano helped make ends meet by singing popular music under the pseudonym of "Nino Florio". Deciding he'd had enough of service under Mussolini, di Stefano deserted to neutral Switzerland in 1943. Though di Stefano was interned as a refugee, he made his way singing on Swiss radio broadcasts, succeeding in building a small following. At war's end, he returned to Italy and began his singing career in earnest, debuting as Chevalier des Grieux in Massenet's Manon at a performance held in Reggio Emilia on April 20, 1946.

Word spread like wildfire throughout Italy about di Stefano's talent, and he made his La Scala debut less than a year later, repeating his role as des Grieux. Di Stefano's reputation was further assisted with a series of recordings undertaken at this time in which he sang Neapolitan and other kinds of light Italian songs. Some of these early di Stefano recordings are yet regarded as the finest in this genre. The Metropolitan Opera of New York soon became interested, and di Stefano made his bow at the Met in Rigoletto on February 25, 1948.

For many opera lovers, the name of Giuseppe di Stefano is inextricably linked with that of legendary soprano Maria Callas. Di Stefano first appeared with Callas in a production of La Traviata given at São Paulo on September 9, 1951. Afterward he appeared frequently alongside Callas on-stage and in recordings, the most celebrated of the latter being a 1953 EMI of Tosca, regarded by many in the operatic fold as the finest recorded Tosca in existence. Clearly there was some compatibility between Callas and di Stefano; both emphasizing emotional, powerful singing colored with sensual warmth. With Callas, di Stefano recorded a total of ten complete operas. Di Stefano also partnered Leontyne Price in a celebrated Tosca led by Herbert von Karajan for London/Decca in 1961.

As in the case of Callas, problems with di Stefano's voice began to surface early on. In the late '50s, di Stefano began to take on heavy roles, such as Calaf in Turandot, wreaking havoc on his clear and light tenor voice. By the early '60s, di Stefano was unable to sing a true pianissimo, resorting instead to shouting, aspirating, and breaking registers. Nonetheless, he maintained a full schedule of engagements throughout the '60s and into the '70s. In 1973-1974, di Stefano and Callas embarked on an ill-advised world concert tour. The end result, unfortunately, was that the public got to hear what pitiable wrecks these two great singers had made of their voices. This disastrous tour spelled a sad end to both their professional careers. However, di Stefano returned to the stage to sing minor roles on occasion, the last recorded instance being in Rome in 1992. While the efforts of his later singing have injured the reputation of di Stefano in some quarters, there's no denying that he was one of the finest tenor voices to emerge in the wake of World War II.

Di Stefano suffered severe injuries during a robbery at his villa in Kenya in 2004 and spent the final three years of his life incapacitated in a Milanese hospital. He died of complications from his injuries in March of 2008. ~ Uncle Dave Lewis