Sills, Beverly (1929–2007)

US operatic soprano. Her high-ranging coloratura was allied to a subtle emotional control in French and Italian roles, notably as principal in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and Puccini's Manon Lescaut.

She was a child radio star who became one of the world's most dramatically gifted opera singers, making her debut at 17 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She joined the New York City Opera in 1955. She appeared at such European opera houses as La Scala, Milan (1969), and Covent Garden, London (1970). Her Metropolitan Opera debut was in 1975; in 1979 she became director of the New York City Opera, and retired from the stage in 1980. She became the first woman chair of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, a position she held 1994–2002. She went to serve as chairman of the Metropolitan Opera 2002–05. She published the autobiographies Bubbles (1976) and Beverly: An Autobiography (1987).