Fiora Corradetti Contino, who founded her first opera company when she was only 27 and became an accomplished maestra who conducted for 50 years, until she was 81, died on March 5 in Carmel, Ind. She was 91. The cause was arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, her daughter Lisa Contino said.

Dr. Contino, who made her New York conducting debut when she was 73, hailed from a distinguished musical family. Her father, Ferrucio Corradetti, was a leading baritone at La Scala in Milan before he fled Mussolini’s Fascist regime. A half sister, Iris Adami Corradetti, was a soprano and one of the featured Madama Butterflys of the late 1930s.