Jarmila Novotná (1907-1994), one of the great operatic artists of the twentieth century in Europe and America, was also a performer in theater, radio, on film and television. A fervent patriot who personally witnessed the birth of independent Czechoslovakia, Novotná would be exiled from her homeland by the Nazis and the Communists in succession for fifty years, returning only after the Velvet Revolution to be hailed as a national heroine by President Václav Havel. William V. Madison is a former producer at CBS News and a former associate editor of Opera News. He is theauthor of Madeline Kahn: Being the Music, A Life.