Sills in "Manon" and as a genial host. (Photos: WNET.)
Obituary
Beverly Sills, 78
Beverly Sills, 78, opera’s most popular star in America for many years, died July 2 at her home in New York City. She had lung cancer.
Sills maintained multiple overlapping careers as an acclaimed lyric coloratura soprano, TV sidekick of Carol Burnett and Johnny Carson, host of PBS concerts and pledge galas, general director of the New York City Opera and chair of Lincoln Center.
Just five years ago she crossed the plaza at Lincoln Center and became chairman of the neighbor and rival of the City Opera, the Metropolitan Opera. In that position, she persuaded the Met to hire Peter Gelb, its present director, according to the New York Times.
A rare opera star who made her career almost entirely in the United States, she started singing for a living at age 15. Her father was from Romania and her mother from Russia. Sills was from Brooklyn.
She specialized in Italian bel canto roles, debuted at the City Opera in 1955 and often performed with the Opera Company of Boston. She did not sing abroad until 1969 or at the Met until 1975, and she retired from the opera stage in 1980.
Over the years, Sills performed at least eight full operatic roles on PBS, according to Johnny Walker, a senior producer for Great Performances.
But she may have been seen more often on PBS as host of such shows as Live from Lincoln Center and the annual Gala of Stars fundraising specials produced for PBS March pledge drives from 1978 to 1986.
By that time, Sills was already a star on the commercial networks, doing guest spots on variety shows and often filling in as guest host for Carson. “We were riding on her coattails,” says Walker. “We were lucky to have her.”
But Sills and other performers also were grateful to public TV because it was the only channel where they could be seen performing more than a snippet of their roles, Walker added.
The artists routinely donated their time to appear on the Gala of Stars, which was modeled on fundraisers that European opera companies hold for their own benefit, says Jac Venza, retired WNET arts chief.
Sills was as approachable and witty as she seemed on screen, Walker says. During one production, she permitted an audio technician to go under her gown to change the batteries in her wireless mike. When he emerged and thanked “Miss Sills” for her cooperation, Walker remembers, “she said, ‘Honey, you know me well enough to call me Beverly now.’”
Web page posted Aug. 6, 2010
Copyright 2010 by Current LLC