Beverly Sills American opera singer, soprano Date of Birth: 25.05.1929 Country: USA

Biography of Beverly Sills

Beverly Sills, born Belle Miriam Silverman in 1929 in Brooklyn, New York, was an American opera singer and soprano. She was the daughter of Jewish immigrants Shirley Bahn from Ukraine and Morris Silverman, a former Romanian insurance broker. Growing up in Brooklyn, Belle was a bright and cheerful girl who easily learned several languages, including French, Yiddish, Romanian, and Russian. She attended Erasmus Hall High School and later Manhattan's Professional Children's School.

At the age of three, Belle won her first title as the most charming baby, and she performed her first vocal number during a competition, singing the song "The Wedding of Jack and Jill". At the age of four, she hosted a radio program called "Rainbow House" every Saturday. Her mother, a music enthusiast with a collection of opera records, supported and developed her daughter's talent. Belle admired the magnificent soprano Amelita Galli-Curci from an early age and memorized over twenty of her arias by the age of seven. At the age of seven, her mother decided to train her as a coloratura soprano.

Despite initial reluctance from her first music teacher, Estelle Liebling, upon hearing Belle's voice, she immediately started her training. Beverly, who had adopted her stage name by then, achieved incredible success at a young age. By the age of ten, she had performed around 50 opera roles and had appeared on radio programs, women's clubs, musicals, and even nightclubs.

After graduating from school, Beverly received an offer to sing in a traveling theater, and in 1945, she joined the Gilbert and Sullivan troupe. In 1947, she made her operatic debut as Frasquita in "Carmen" with the Philadelphia Civic Grand Opera Company. Over the next decade, Beverly Sills toured extensively in the United States and built an extensive repertoire of operatic roles.

In 1955, Beverly joined the New York City Opera, where she struggled to secure leading roles initially. However, her breakthrough came in the mid-1960s when she portrayed Cleopatra in Handel's "Giulio Cesare." Critics and opera lovers recognized her as a major star with a "rich," "flexible," "silvery," "brilliant," and "astonishingly powerful" voice. She went on to achieve great success in roles such as Lucia in Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor," Elvira in Bellini's "I puritani," Rosina in Rossini's "The Barber of Seville," and many others.

In 1969, Beverly began her international career, receiving enthusiastic applause from audiences in Naples, London, Berlin, Buenos Aires, and Milan's renowned La Scala theater. La Scala even revived Rossini's opera "The Siege of Corinth" specifically for her. She continued to shine on the world's best opera stages, and her goal was to perform all the famous bel canto soprano roles, totaling more than 80.

In 1979, Beverly Sills decided to retire from the opera stage and became the general director of the New York City Opera. In 1994, she became the chairman of the Lincoln Center and later transitioned to the Metropolitan Opera in 2002. Her organizational talent was as remarkable as her vocal talent.

Beverly Sills fully retired in 2005. On June 28, 2007, she was hospitalized with lung cancer and passed away on July 2, 2007, at the age of 78. She was buried at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.

In 1956, Beverly married journalist Peter Greenough from Cleveland, Ohio, and they had two children, Meredith in 1959 and Peter Jr. in 1961. Unfortunately, both children faced health challenges, with Meredith suffering from deafness and multiple sclerosis, and Peter Jr. having intellectual disabilities.

Today, Beverly Sills is remembered as one of the brightest coloratura sopranos and a superstar of bel canto repertoire.