Opera star Beverly Sills dies of cancer at 78...
Topic: MILESTONESJun-Dec07
Brooklyn, NY, May 25, 1929 — Manhattan, NY, July, 2, 2007
Beverly Sills, the Brooklyn-born opera diva who was a global icon of can-do American culture with her dazzling voice, bubbly personality and management moxie in the arts world, died Monday [2 JUL 2007] of cancer, her manager said. She was 78. It had been revealed just last month that Sills was gravely ill with inoperable lung cancer. Born Belle Miriam Silverman in Brooklyn, the coloratura soprano made her opera debut in 1947 in Philadelphia in a bit role in "Carmen." She became a star with the smaller New York City Opera, where she first performed in 1955 in Johann Strauss Jr.'s "Die Fledermaus." She was acclaimed for performances in such operas as Douglas Moore's "The Ballad of Baby Doe," Massenet's "Manon" and Handel's "Giulio Cesare." She didn't appear at the Met until 1975, shortly before her retirement from singing, which made it surprising when the Met asked her to sit on its board in 2002.
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