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The recent funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and the nearly universal praise for the monarch’s dedication to service during her 70 years on the throne took me back to one

The story of Ida and Louise Cook, two opera buffs who lived with their parents while running a daring scheme to rescue Jews from Hitler

Truth Tellers: Franz Schubert Bequeathed to Us Hints of a Finer World Little Schubert! He was not quite five feet tall, he was portly, he was plain, and lived only 31 years. The few letters he left behind reveal a gentle, ardent soul, incapable of resentment, and incapable of artifice. He was music’s messenger of infinite beauty and goodwill, producing within 18 years a multitude of symphonies, sonatas, chamber works, and songs in unrivaled abundance. His friends called him “Schwammerl” (“Little Mushroom”) and said that he slept with his glasses on so that he could begin to compose ...

Truth Tellers: Zinka Milanov, the Truth of the Soul The most beautiful voice in the world How many centuries did it take to change a sigh and a groan into a song? We will leave that question to the anthropologists and musicologists, and focus our attention on the 19th century—the century of bel canto, beautiful singing—when the operas and songs of our great composers reached their full bloom and plumbed the depths of the human heart. Ultimately, no one can prove that something is beautiful, but when many people of discernment say that Croatian soprano Zinka Milanov (1906–1989) has, sa...