McNally’s play Love! Valour! Compassion! (1994) arose from McNally’s desire to write about what it was like to be a gay man in America in the 1990s. The play received laudatory reviews and won several awards, including a Tony Award for best play.

Greek Fire: The Story of Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis (2001), by Nicholas Gage, sympathetically documents the tempestuous nineyear affair between Callas and the Greek shipping tycoon. Relevant for students of Master Class is Gage’s claim that Callas gave birth to Onassis’s son in 1960 and that the baby died within hours.

Maria Callas: An Intimate Biography (2001), by Anne Edwards, is the latest of more than thirty biographies of Callas. Edwards is at pains to search for the facts behind all the myths about Callas, and she produces evidence to refute Gage’s assertion in Greek Fire that Callas had a son by Onassis. In addition to the riveting tale of Callas’s ultimately tragic life, Edwards also provides many descriptions of opera plots, costumes, and sceneries.

Diva: Great Sopranos and Mezzos Discuss Their Art (1991), by Helena Matheopoulos, covers twenty-six leading female opera singers, who discuss topics such as their vocal development, the roles for which they are best known, and their personal lives. Many offer advice to young singers.