Beverly Sills interview (8 January 1989)

[@andrewvincenti2664]

What a lovely lady, so full of life and no pretensions - love her ❤❤❤

[@wotan10950]

Beverly was my very first operatic love, and I saw her in everything she sang. Despite her bubbly offstage personality, I actually thought she was far better in the great tragic roles.

[@fourniturev]

Great thank you! Beverly is surely missed.

[@caramelorb]

Thanks for watching.

[@flyinghow]

She was my first love when it came to sopranos, Price being second. If it had not been for a very good humanities teacher and a recording of Beverly Sills, I probably never would have come to love opera. I applaud her glorious voice, her career, and most of all for knowing when to leave the party because so many others have gone on and still go on singing way past their expiration date. Brava!!!

[@Holderlin]

What a gentleman... Delicious to watch him ask and behave.

[@suzannederringer1607]

Gosh - did she really retire from NYCO Directorship in 1989? So long ago. Saw many of her performances ... ROBERTO DEVEREUX wasn't really her best role, much as she wanted to do it. But it made her happy.

[@corneliuswhite5139]

A LOVELY Woman. I had the honor of meeting her while at City Opera in 86 while debuting Anthony Davis' "The Life and Times of Malcolm X." I really felt when she said she had the role of "mother," as she came through and welcomed each and every one of us making debuts with an engraved silver cup...I still have it.🥰

[@sanfordpress8943]

So you got to meet her !!!!! How wonderful. I hope she inspired your career

[@windstorm1000]

Fabulous artist and rsrthy lady

[@arnoldamaral7406]

The best American Dramatic Coloratura.👑 & a great Lady💙 🎶🎼🎵. 🇫🇷🍷 Arnold Bourbon Amaral

[@sanfordpress8943]

A wonderful person.

[@DanRobSo]

I miss her.

[@valentinovega5804]

Low raspy deep speaking voice but powerful light bright singing voice

[@sutherland9]

at 1:38 "I was the highest-paid opera singer in the world". I find that hard to believe. In 1979 was Sills's fee higher than those of Nilsson, Sutherland, Price, Pavarotti, and Domingo? Sills was a big star in North America; Europeans do not put her at the very top echelon.

[@baritonebynight]

Not sure why she would lie.

[@derherrvonhabenichts7462]

Europeans don't know everything! Beverly Sills studied with Estelle Liebling. Estelle Liebling studied with Mathilde Marchesi, who taught Emma Eames, Emma Calvé and Nell Porter Mitchell (Nellie Melba). Mathilde Marchesi, wife of Salvatore Marchesi, was Manuel Garcia II's protegée and assistant. Manuel Garcia II invented the laryngoscope. His sisters were Pauline Viardot and Maria Maibran. Sill's musical pedigre is an unbroken line back to true Bel Canto.

[@flyinghow]

Do some research lol

[@oliviero.m750]

I absolutely adore her, but she was no longer at the top (as she says in her speech) when she ended her career as her voice had already deteriorated with a large vibrato at the time. She remains however one of the greatest singers in the world, and at her peek she was incredible! ❤️

[@derherrvonhabenichts7462]

She had battled cancer and had an operation that adversely affected the breath support. The voice was still there, range and all; however, as I tell students and choir singers, when a person does not feel well, the FIRST place it shows up is the voice! Sometimes we can mask it well: a slight sinus condition can result in nearly effortless frontal resonance (in the masque where we work so very hard to focusthe tone!), even though the singer would rather not have to fight the weakness and indisposition.

[@flyinghow]

I think you just like to hear yourself talk. She said all of that already.

[@direfranchement]

You’re disrespectful, and that is only your opinion, not fact.

[@liedersanger1]

She was not the foremost American soprano of her time. That was Leontyne Price. OK, perhaps they would share the title.

[@edwardamosbrandwein3583]

They were TWO ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SINGERS

[@Etnalleb]

Apples and Oranges . Price was a Dramatic Soprano. Sills a Coloratura. That's like comparing Pavarotti to Mario Del Monaco .

[@borisbloch7254]

@@Etnalleb they were not being compared. The objection is calling her the foremost American soprano while Leontine Price was around.

[@artdanks4846]

@@borisbloch7254 Agreed.

[@stewart335]

There's no question Beverly Sills was more famous in her time. Her name was everywhere, she was an absolute superstar. Does that detract from how incredible Leontyne was? Absolutely not. Leontyne's fame has come more dramatically in recent times, she wasn't making headlines the way Sills was back then. Maybe it was a white privilege thing, maybe people enjoyed Sills' faster, livelier rolls she naturally had as a coloratura.