One of the hallmarks of opera is the coloratura soprano, the lady with the shimmering high notes. These singers typically have brighter sounds, narrower vibrato, and lighter voices, which enables them to sing impressively high notes and fast, technical passages. One of the most beloved coloratura soprano of the 20th century was Beverly Sills.
Bubbles Silverman
The soprano was born as Belle Miriam Silverman in Brooklyn to Jewish immigrant parents in 1929. As a child, she was known as Bubbles Silverman. Her singing career began at age 3 when she won a “Miss Beautiful Baby” contest, in which she sang “The Wedding of Jack and Jill.” She turned professional the next year when she started singing on “Rainbow House,” a Saturday morning radio program. At age 7, Sills started taking private voice lessons with renowned soprano Estelle Liebling. She continued regular lessons with Liebling until her beloved teacher died at the age of 90 in 1970.After studying with Liebling a year, the 8-year-old soprano appeared in a short film, “Uncle Sol Solves It.” In this movie, she sings the Italian aria “Il bacio” by Luigi Arditi. This is the earliest existing recording of her voice. By this time, she had adopted her stage name Beverly Sills. “Uncle Sol Solves It” was just the beginning of her career in popular entertainment. At age 10, she won “Major Bowes’ Amateur Hour” on CBS Radio. She went on to appear on Bowes’s weekly variety show “Capitol Family Hour” and appeared on the program several times.
At 16, Sills made her professional stage debut with a Gilbert and Sullivan touring company started by theatrical producer Jacob J. Shubert. During the two-month tour throughout the United States and Canada, she sang principal roles in seven operettas, developing her comedic timing through playing humorous roles like the title character in “Patience.”
Opera At Last
Beverly Sills made her operatic debut as Frasquita, one of the two gypsy soloists in “Carmen” by Georges Bizet, at the Philadelphia Civic Grand Opera Company. She made her debut in that role on Feb. 14, 1951, at the age of 21. The conductor was Giuseppe Bamboschek, who had been giving her weekly coaching sessions. In her 1987 autobiography “Beverly,” Sills recounted that Bamboschek cast her as an understudy in “Thaïs” by Massenet before putting her on as Frasquita.That was just the beginning of Sills’s illustrious operatic career. For the next 15 years, she would sing most of the major coloratura and lyric soprano roles in companies around the country. She became a respected singer, but she was not a star.
Stardom didn’t come to her until 1966, when she and bass Norman Treigle performed a revival of “Giulio Cesare” by George Frideric Handel with the New York City Opera. This dramatic opera seria (a serious Italian opera from the 18th century) had only been performed once before in the United States; the opera became an instant sensation. Sills’s dramatic intensity and agile vocalisms made her the perfect choice for the role of Queen Cleopatra, and Treigle was powerfully masculine as Caesar.
The next year, they made a recording of the opera. This catapulted Sills to superstardom, landing her on the cover of major magazines and winning her the title “America’s Queen of Opera.”
The Metropolitan Opera
After the retirement of Rudolf Bing, Metropolitan Opera’s general manager of many years, Sills finally made her debut there in 1975 in “The Siege of Corinth” by Gioachino Rossini. After that, she performed “La Traviata,” “Thaïs,” “Lucia di Lammermoor” and “Don Pasquale” at the Met.Sills retired from the opera stage in 1980 at the age of 51, giving her farewell performance in Johann Strauss II’s “Die Fledermaus” at the San Diego Opera. This wasn’t the end of her involvement with the industry, however.
In 1979, she became the general director of The Met’s rival the New York City Opera, where she had sung for years. Under her leadership, the struggling company became financially successful. After she left that position 10 years later, she remained on the company’s board for another two years. In 1991, she became a board member of the Met. From 1994 to 2002, she was chairwoman of Lincoln Center, where both the New York City Opera and The Met performed. From 2002 to 2005, she was chairwoman of the Metropolitan Opera.
Her Legacy
Sills’s legacy is one of contrasts. She was both a child prodigy and a late bloomer, achieving true recognition in the opera world later in her career. As a coloratura soprano, Sills was unafraid to potentially shorten her career by tackling heavier repertoire and making bold dramatic choices, as an emotional actress and a fearless comedienne.She was a true prima donna who changed the perception of the conceited opera diva. Sills could perform anywhere in the world, yet chose to perform primarily in the United States so she could be with her husband and two disabled children.
Sills stands out for having sung all four heroines in Jacques Offenbach’s “The Tales of Hoffmann” (“Les Contes d’Hoffmann”), all three heroines in Giacomo Puccini’s “Triptych” (“Suor Angelica,” “Gianni Schicchi,” and “Il Tabarro”), and Gaetano Donizetti’s “three queens” in “Anna Bolena,” “Maria Stuarda,” and “Roberto Devereux.”
Through her extensive recordings and her numerous television show appearances (which are found on YouTube), Sills’s legacy lives on. She shone on the music written by classic composers like Donizetti, Rossini, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Puccini, as well as popularizing new works by 20th-century composers Douglas Moore and Gian Carlo Menotti.
From Bubbles of Brooklyn to the hotheaded, red-haired manager of the New York City Opera, Beverly Sills was an unforgettable talent and personality.
