Today’s Globe brings the sad news that Beverly Sills passed away last night at the age of 78. She apparently died of lung cancer, even though she never smoked. A cruel irony for a world-class opera singer — one of several in her life, another being that her daughter is deaf and therefore never heard her mother sing.
Sills had an extraordinary career, all the more so because it was entirely built in the United States (rare for opera singers at the time — most went to Europe), and because the Metropolitan Opera was not a significant part of it (her home base was New York City Opera, the lower-priced, less hoity-toity alternative to the Met). The Globe’s nicely-done obituary is well worth a read. Some interesting local color: Sills (born Belle Miriam Silverman, in Brooklyn) spent several years living in Boston in the 1960s when her husband wrote for the Globe. And she was a mainstay of Sarah Caldwell’s now-defunct Opera Company of Boston, where she performed several important roles for the first and, in some cases, only time.
Sills was an American original, and she did more to popularize opera in the United States than anyone I can think of. The opera world needs more people like her, yet of course her like will not be seen again. She will be missed.
Beverly Sills is the reason I ever paid any attention to opera as a kid. Her presence and “realness”, not to mention her vocal gifts, were very appealing, and drew my attention like a magnet. My first is hearing her sing Bernstein’s Candide. One American master sings another. Fare thee well, Ms. SIlls.
She’ll always be “Bubbles” to those of us who heard her regularly in New York. Bubbly she was too. She seemed to enjoy herself more than any other diva I have ever seen. The audiences couldn’t help themselves being caught up in her pleasure. A great voice and even greater personality.
She had a duaghter who was deaf.
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wtf
you know what a stickler I am for proper grammar
I swear I scanned the post first looking for that.
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Well, I bet you don’t know she smoked.