So Tragic and so Soon
July 4th 2007 11:59
Beverly Sills, an operatic legend, 1929 - 2007
Beverly Sills was picked from the crowd after auditioning for Major Bowes' Amateur Hour - a radio program that was the American Idol of its day (1938!). She won the program for the week and a string of further radio appearrances followed before she made her stage debut in 1945 and her professional operatic debut in 1947.
Enjoying a lighter moment - on the Muppet show in 1979
Beverly retired as a professional opera singer in 1980 to much farewell and fanfare. Over the next two decades she became increasingly important as the Director of the New York City Opera Company, a post she held for nine years. During which time she reversed the companies fortunes, making them a financially profittable enterprise.
Two great divas!
Beverly Sills own illness was only reported late last month when the singer was hospitalised - a press statement cited her as seriously ill - with lung cancer. She was not a smoker. She died Monday (July 2) with her daughter at her bedside. The suddenness of her death making it all the more shocking.
"It's Art!"
RIP Beverly
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