Remembering Beverly Sills

Beverly Sills died of cancer after a long, rich life as a singer and creative promoter of opera. I was fortunate enough to see her perform when I was young. My mother took me to see her sing along with Joan Sutherland in Donizetti's bel canto historical opera Maria Stuarda at the San Francisco Opera. I think it was in 1971-2, so I must have been about 12-13. My mom impressed on me that we were going to see two of the best sopranos in the world at that time, so even though I had not yet heard much opera, I tried to pay attention to see why they were supposed to be so great. We went standing room. I actually sat on the floor for a lot of it, just listening. At that age, I had just as much fun looking over the balcony in the lobby at what all the rich people were wearing, because in those days people dressed UP to go to the opera. I would hear a lot more opera while standing many years later when I lived with an aspiring opera singer.

I've discovered this fabulous site, Parterre Box presents La Cieca: Unnatural Acts of Opera, a queer opera zine. Thanks to La Cieca, here, assembled in Sills' honor, links to audio and video performances.

Here is a clip of a very young Sills performing an aria from a Handel opera as Queen Cleopatra, showing how her singing brought baroque opera back to public attention.