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Beverly Sills, affectionately known as "America's Queen of Opera," was a vibrant and fine-humored coloratura who humanized opera and made it approachable to the masses. With her toothy smile and fireplace-warm personality, she gained widespread recognition for her rise to stardom without the benefit of European training, paving the way for other American-trained singers to succeed.
Born Belle Miriam Silverman on May 25, 1929, in Brooklyn to Russian-Jewish émigrés, she was nicknamed "Bubbles" due to the bubbles emanating from her mouth at birth. She made her debut on a kiddie show at age three and won a Brooklyn "beautiful baby" contest. Her singing gifts were detected early on, and she began studying at age seven. She performed increasingly on various radio shows throughout her teen years and made her operatic debut at age 18, singing the role of Frasquita in "Carmen" with the Philadelphia Civic Opera.
Beverly toured with the Charles L. Wagner Opera Company in the early 1950s, establishing herself in the roles of Violetta in "La Traviata" and Micaela in "Carmen." The highlight of this time came with her role as Helen of Troy in "Mephistopheles" with the San Francisco Opera in 1953. She met her future husband, Peter Greenough, an associate editor, while touring with the New York City Opera in 1955.
The couple married a year later and had two children, Meredith and Peter Jr. Despite her sunny demeanor, Beverly faced misfortune, including the birth of her daughter with a hearing impairment and her son with autism. She became an avid spokesperson for children with special needs.
Her buildup on the opera scene was gradual, developing a strong repertoire of leading roles in the works of Mozart, Handel, Offenbach, Donizetti, Rossini, and Verdi. Stardom came with her role as Cleopatra in Handel's "Julius Caesar" in 1966 at Lincoln Center, and she confirmed it with subsequent roles in "Le Coq d'Or," "Mamon," "Lucia di Lammermoor," "The Siege of Corinth," and "Il Trittico."
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, she made herself available to the public in lighter forums at open venues such as the Hollywood Bowl. She willingly shared the stage and small screen with unlikely co-stars such as Carol Burnett, Danny Kaye, John Denver, Tony Bennett, Johnny Carson, and the Muppets. She won four Emmys for her interview show "Lifestyles with Beverly Sills" in the late 1970s.
On the operatic side, some of her televised performances included "The Barber of Seville," "La Traviata," and "Manon." Her lyric soprano began to falter at around age 50 in the late 1970s. She bid her audiences adieu in a 1980 performance of "Die Fledermaus" with Joan Sutherland for the San Diego Opera.
Later that decade, she was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980 and was paid tribute at the 1985 Kennedy Center Honors for her lifetime of contribution to the arts.
