Beverly Sills Remembered
This is sad to hear. She was so good with sharing the love of the arts, Opera. I saw her speak introducing different opera's and it showed she loved what she was doing. And wanted us to love it too. And I recall her fight to keep the Met. It is sad to know but I am glad that every one knows about this loss. There is no lack of available information on her work and life. I think this time I will not look at the media as the baracuda I usually do for sad times in Life when Death is announced. And knowing a little about Lung Cancer I am sure she is at peace and in no more pain. We remember and keep those we love and admire alive by speaking of them, telling others about them. They are not forgotten. And with the mass medias we have now it is not likely they are written in a book put on a shelf and forgotten and later burned by the library to replace with new books. Her name should always pop up in a search connected with opera! Me. ARTS |  | |||||
 | | Times Topics: Beverly Sills Complete coverage of the opera singer's life and career, including clips of her performances. Obituary | ||||
Beverly Sills, the All-American Diva, Is Dead at 78
Justin Lane for The New York Times
Beverly Sills in 2002, after coming out of retirement as chairwoman of Lincoln Center to lead the Metropolitan Opera. More Photos >
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI - Published: July 3, 2007
Beverly Sills, the acclaimed Brooklyn-born coloratura soprano who was more popular with the American public than any opera singer since Enrico Caruso, even among people who never set foot in an opera house, died last night at her home in Manhattan. She was 78.
Related Her Voice on Record (July 3, 2007)
Times Topics: Beverly Sills Additional articles about the former opera singer and audio and video clips of her performances.
Audio Clips of Beverly Sills performing:
Manon: 'Un mot, s'il vous plait, Chevalier' with the Ambrosian Opera Chorus and New Philharmonia Orchestra (mp3)
'The Ballad of Baby Doe:' with Emerson Buckley and New York City Opera Orchestra (mp3)
AP Photo/G. Paul BurnettBeverly Sills takes her final bows at the New York City Opera when she retired from the stage on Oct. 27, 1980. More Photos »
Related Her Voice on Record (July 3, 2007)
Times Topics: Beverly Sills Additional articles about the former opera singer and audio and video clips of her performances.
Audio Clips of Beverly Sills performing:
Manon: 'Un mot, s'il vous plait, Chevalier' with the Ambrosian Opera Chorus and New Philharmonia Orchestra (mp3)
'The Ballad of Baby Doe:' with Emerson Buckley and New York City Opera Orchestra (mp3)
Beverly Sills takes her final bows at the New York City Opera when she retired from the stage on Oct. 27, 1980. More Photos »
The cause was inoperable lung cancer, said her personal manager, Edgar Vincent.
Ms. Sills was America’s idea of a prima donna. Her plain-spoken manner and telegenic vitality made her a genuine celebrity and an invaluable advocate for the fine arts. Her life embodied an archetypal American story of humble origins, years of struggle, family tragedy and artistic triumph.
During her day, American opera singers routinely went overseas for training and professional opportunities. But Ms. Sills was a product of her native country and did not even perform in Europe until she was 36. At a time when opera singers regularly appeared as guests on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” Ms. Sills was the only opera star who was invited to be guest host. She made frequent television appearances with Carol Burnett, Danny Kaye and even the Muppets.
Indeed, while she was still singing, and before her 10-year tenure as general director of the New York City Opera, Ms. Sills for nearly two years was host of her own weekly talk show on network television. After leaving her City Opera post, she continued an influential career as an arts administrator, becoming the chairwoman first of Lincoln Center and then of the Metropolitan Opera.
During her performing career, with her combination of brilliant singing, ebullience and self-deprecating humor, Ms. Sills demystified opera — and the fine arts in general — in a way that a general public audience responded to. Asked about the ecstatic reception she received when she made a belated debut at La Scala in Milan in 1969, Ms. Sills told the press, “It’s probably because Italians like big women, big bosoms and big backsides.”
Along with Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland, she was an acknowledged exponent of the bel canto Italian repertory during the period of its post-World War II revival. Though she essentially had a light soprano voice, her sound was robust and enveloping. In her prime her technique was exemplary. She could dispatch coloratura roulades and embellishments, capped by radiant high D’s and E-flat’s, with seemingly effortless agility. She sang with scrupulous musicianship, rhythmic incisiveness and a vivid sense of text.
Moreover, she brought unerring acting instincts to her portrayals of tragic leading roles in Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” and “Anna Bolena,” Bellini’s “Puritani,” Massenet’s “Manon” and many other operas in her large repertory. And few singers matched her deadpan comic timing and physical nimbleness in lighter roles like Rosina in Rossini’s “Barbiere di Siviglia,” whom Ms. Sills portrayed as a ditsy yet determined young woman, and Marie, the tomboylike heroine raised by a military regiment in Donizetti’s “Fille du Régiment.”
In 1955 Ms. Sills joined the New York City Opera, which then performed in the City Center building on West 55th Street. Her loyal commitment to what at the time was an enterprising but second-tier company may have prevented her from achieving wider success earlier in her career. By the time Ms. Sills finally captured international attention, her voice had started to decline.
As early as 1970, reviews of her work were mixed. Harold C. Schonberg, then the chief music critic of The New York Times, fretted in his columns about Ms. Sills’s inconsistency. Yet reviewing her as Donizetti’s Lucia at the City Opera in early 1970, Mr. Schonberg wrote: “The amazing thing about her Lucia is not so much the way she sings it, though that has moments of incandescent beauty, but the way she manages to make a living, breathing creature of the unhappy girl.” He added that Ms. Sills “delivered by far the most believable mad scene I have ever seen in any opera house.”
That fall Mr. Schonberg’s quite negative review of Ms. Sills’s singing as Queen Elizabeth I in Donizetti’s “Roberto Devereux” was strongly countered by other critics, notably Alan Rich in New York magazine. Mr. Rich reported that he had left the performance “in a state of euphoria bordering on hysteria.” A magnificent opera, he added, had been “rescued from oblivion and accorded superb treatment.” It was an “extraordinary accomplishment” for Ms. Sills, he felt.
For the rest of her singing career, Ms. Sills elicited divergent reactions from critics. But the public, by and large, adored her. Though most of her fans knew that her struggle to the top had been long and tough, few realized just how long and how tough.
An Early Start
Beverly Sills was born Belle Silverman on May 25, 1929, in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. Her father, Morris, was an insurance broker whose family had emigrated from Bucharest, Romania. Her mother, Shirley, was born Sonia Markovna in the Russian city of Odessa. Ms. Sills was nicknamed Bubbles at birth because, her mother said, she emerged from the womb with bubbles in her mouth, and the name stuck.
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Beverly Sills Multimedia 
Slide Show
Images of the life and career of Beverly Sills. More Multimedia »
Video of Beverly Sills (YouTube.com)
A scene from'Il Barbiere Di Siviglia'
Beverly Sills as Queen Elizabeth Beverly Sills as Baby Doe A scene from "Manon"
Interview: Separation From Family"
Audio Clips of Beverly Sills in Performance
Manon: 'Un mot, s'il vous plait, Chevalier' with the Ambrosian Opera Chorus and New Philharmonia Orchestra (mp3) 'The Ballad of Baby Doe:' with Emerson Buckley and New York City Opera Orchestra (mp3)
A scene from'Il Barbiere Di Siviglia'
Beverly Sills, the acclaimed Brooklyn-born coloratura soprano who was more popular with the American public than any opera singer since Enrico Caruso, even among people who never set foot in an opera house, died on July 2 at her home in Manhattan. The cause was inoperable lung cancer, said her personal manager, Edgar Vincent. She was 78.
Ms. Sills was America's idea of a prima donna. Her plain-spoken manner and telegenic vitality made her a genuine celebrity and an invaluable advocate for the fine arts. Her life embodied an archetypal American story of humble origins, years of struggle, family tragedy and artistic triumph.
At a time when American opera singers routinely went overseas for training and professional opportunities, Ms. Sills was a product of her native country and did not even perform in Europe until she was 36. At a time when opera singers regularly appeared as guests on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," Ms. Sills was the only opera star who was invited to be guest host. She made frequent television appearances with Carol Burnett, Danny Kaye and even the Muppets. --Anthony Tommasini
ARTICLES ABOUT BEVERLY SILLS - More articles in Topics in the New York Times that were written on Beverly Sills. Includes many other people too as she affected many others. Remembering Beverly Sills 
Peter B. Greenough, 89, Former Columnist - Peter B. Greenough was a former financial columnist for The Boston Globe and the husband of the opera star Beverly Sills.September 8, 2006 Obituaries Obituary
MORE ON BEVERLY SILLS AND: NEWSPAPERS, BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION, DEATHS (OBITUARIES), GREENOUGH, PETER B, BOSTON GLOBE, MANHATTAN (NYC)
From the Philharmonic, Relief for Louisiana Colleagues By DANIEL J. WAKIN
The New York Philharmonic will entwine itself with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert to support musicians affected by Hurricane Katrina.
October 28, 2005 Movies News
Save Met Broadcasts By ROBIN POGREBIN After losing a longtime corporate sponsor, the Met and its chairwoman, Beverly Sills, will make an appeal for help on the air this weekend. March 6, 2004 Arts News
MORE ON BEVERLY SILLS AND: PHILANTHROPY, RADIO, OPERA, CHEVRONTEXACO CORPORATION, CHEVRONTEXACO CORP, METROPOLITAN OPERA
Bubbly soprano Beverly Sills, 78 -
| By Chris Pasles AP Beverly Sills sings the role of Norina in Donizetti's "Don Pasquale," at ... Beverly Sills, whose sparkling coloratura soprano and warm, ... |
AP
Beverly Sills sings the role of Norina in Donizetti's "Don Pasquale," at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1980.
Beverly Sills, whose sparkling coloratura soprano and warm, spunky personality made her an international opera celebrity and whose experience as a mother made her a passionate advocate for children with special needs, has died. She was 78.
Ms. Sills, who never smoked, died Monday of lung cancer at her home in New York, according to her longtime manager, Edgar Vincent.
The Brooklyn-born Ms. Sills, widely known as "Bubbles," was an American success story. She rose to stardom without receiving what was considered mandatory: training in Europe. Moreover, she made her career essentially outside the sacred portals of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, paving the way for generations of wholly U.S.-trained singers to succeed without Met certification.
Her repertoire eventually encompassed more than 70 roles, and she recorded 18 full-length operas and several solo recital discs. Her "Manon" received the Edison Award for best operatic album of 1971, and her Victor Herbert album won a Grammy Award in 1978.
Ms. Sills also gave opera a human face through television appearances, displaying the optimism, wit and lack of diva temperament that endeared her to general audiences as much as her technically accomplished, emotional and insightful dramatic interpretations won the affection of opera aficionados.
Reviewing her performance in the title role of "Manon" for the New Yorker in 1969, critic Winthrop Sargeant wrote: "If I were recommending the wonders of New York to a tourist, I would place Beverly Sills at the top of the list — way ahead of such things as the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building."
Singing, in fact, was only the first, if the longest, part of her career.
When Ms. Sills retired from the stage at 50, she spent a decade as an exceptionally capable administrator of New York City Opera, turning around the financially beleaguered company that gave her a career and to which she remained faithful as her reputation soared.
Later, she assumed the volunteer post of chairwoman of Lincoln Center in New York, which she held from 1994 to 2002, and then accepted the volunteer post of chairwoman of the Metropolitan Opera. In both positions, she proved a master fundraiser.
Spurred by the births of a daughter who is deaf and a son who is autistic, Ms. Sills also served for many years as chairwoman of the March of Dimes Foundation. Ms. Sills is survived by her daughter, Meredith, and son, Peter.
Beverly Sills (May 25, 1929 – July 2, 2007), born Belle Miriam Silverman, was perhaps the best-known American opera singer in the 1960s and 1970s. ...
| Firsthand interviews with the soprano and excerpts from her memorable performances chronicle her rise to fame on the opera stage. www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/beverlysills/index.html |
| Beverly Sills' greatness and recognition as a coloratura soprano and as a director of an opera company is the epitome of the American success story. ... www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ |
Beverly Sills Quotes - The Quotations Page
| Beverly Sills; I've always tried to go a step past wherever people ... Beverly Sills; You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't ... www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Beverly_Sills/ |
| Beverly Sills is known world over for her operatic talent. For over thirty years, she thrilled audiences with her beautiful voice and stage presence. ... www.wic.org/bio/bsills.htm |
Labels: Beverly Sills, Death, Obituary, opera
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