Beverly Sills
Here are some unusual or uncommon pictures I've found of the great American coloratura soprano Beverly Sills. She was my first 'diva' and will always be a special favorite. When I was a sophomore in high school, I checked out her recording of La Traviata from the public library on the recommendation of a friend in choir, and have never looked back. I own just about every burp of hers that was ever recorded -- all her commerical recordings and the many "private" records of her in her prime. Check out the Beverly Sills Discography page for details. An amazing talent, and a remarkable woman who is missed around the world.Everyone should visit the Web site: www.beverlysills.com for extensive information including performance annals and rare sound and video clips.
As the queen in Rimsky-Korsakoff's Le Coq d'or
As Violetta, one of her best roles which sang hundreds of times.
Violetta at Wolf Trap, mid 70's
As Violetta? Roslinda? Hanna? Looks like the same photo shoot that ended up on the cover of the Merry Widow program below
.
Accepting (or presenting?) an Edison award with (or to) Dionne Warwick, late 1980's.
A really lovely color photo, mid-70's.
Sills, Danny Kaye and Robert Merrill
A very rare and interesting old shot of Beverly (with fur).
Sills and two other divas of a different ilk: Mary Martin and Ethel Merman.
Sills and Burnett at the Met, mid-1970s.
With her daughter Muffy
With husband Peter
Sills out on the town in the early 70's with pals Arlene Francis and Barbara Walters.
Liza and Beverly in a PBS still.
Great early photo, uncommon shot.
Charming backstage snapshot of Sills and conductor Eugene Normandy.
Just about the time she took over as General Director of the NYCO .
Sills at Lincoln Center.
This is a ceramic mask that Sills designed and made as part of a charity fundraiser. It was for sale on Ebay in about 2001 (and sold for $380).
* * OLD PROGRAMS * *
Her "unofficial" Met Company debut, as Donna Anna in a summer concert performance in Lewissohn Stadium, 1966. It was with the Met company, but she did not consider it her real debut because it wasn't in the Met's main house.
A rare program from her Cleveland appearance in the "new" Merry Widow (modern setting, English translation, "old music, new jokes") in the summer of 1956. Her Bio page is blown-up below. She had just made her debut at the NYCO.
Even earlier is a rare program of Sills touring with the Schuberts as Micaela in Carmen. The date is November 9, 1952, from Okalhoma City.
She has a small bio that reads: "Beverly Sills made her first professional appearance at Town Hall in New York City at the age of seven. Hailed as a child prodigy, with an extraordinary coloratura voice, she was engaged by 20th Century Fox and by the time she was nine years old she had made three films. At the age of eleven she toured the Eastern coast as guest soloist with Morton Gould's Symphony Orchestra. When she was 15, the Schuberts engaged her as a prima donna in their Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company that toured the United States and Canada. She sang the title roles in the Merry Widow and the Countess Maritza. Her first concert experience came when she made a concert tour of throughout the US appearing in over fifty cities. Her first operatic experience came when she played the role of Micaela for the Philadelphia Civic Opera Company. Last season she played the role of Violetta in Charles Wagner's La Traviata company.
The program is full of quite funny dated midwest ads. One with an amateurish cartoon reads: "If she droops, is awkward, or overweight -- enroll your daughter now in Beulah Noyes School of Scientific Exercise. For Mothers and Bank Employees, too."
An old add from her managment company in Musical America meant to promote her to concert and opera bookers in the US. This is from the late 1950's.
> Sills Discography
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