# Beverly Sills appreciation thread



## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

There's been a little chitchat about Beverly Sills lately here and there, and I've seen a few of her recordings mentioned. I thought she warranted her own thread. I am a big fan of hers. I hesitate to say she is my favorite singer, only because I'm not sure I have quite enough listening experience to state a single favorite, but of the singers I enjoy the most she is certainly the most recognizable and distinct to me.

I love her phrasing, the way she seems to almost caressing the words with her voice. I've been really into bel canto lately which certainly explains some of my interest in her. But what I think I like most about her music is that I feel pure joy when hearing her voice. She sounds like she loves to sing, and that lifts me emotionally. Not so much in the emotion of the particular character itself that she's portraying, but just sheer love for the music itself.

:clap:


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I agree. I think "Bubbles" has brought so much to the opera world and we are lucky to have either seen her in person or at least heard her at her craft.
I am really not into picking apart her flaws (they all have them). I prefer enjoying those spectacular high notes and wonderful trills that she is able to whip up at will.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Thanks for starting this thread. "Silverly Bells" was one of the singers in her heyday when I started listening to opera, and I think my reactions to her then were much the same as yours are now. Besides having a dazzling coloratura technique equal to anyone's, she was a dedicated artist who never took the easy way out, never settled for making nice sounds, but always looked for musical and dramatic truth. Her voice wasn't the largest or the most tonally luxuriant, and she may have asked more of it than it was naturally capable of and shortened her career, but even then she showed great respect for her art by choosing to retire from the stage and work for opera in other ways. She didn't have the easiest life but always seemed to meet circumstances with grace and humor. Like you, I find her the very embodiment of the joy of singing.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I agree with all the above, but I've always had a problem with the basic timbre and colour of the voice, on record anyway, finding it a tad too small and the tone too shallow for many of the roles she sang. For the Tudor Queens I would prefer Callas, Caballe, Sutherland and Baker. Her Lucia is a wonderfully well thought out characterisation and musically conceived, but here again I would prefer Callas, Sutherland and Caballe. Moffo is nowhere near as dramatically involved in the role, but I prefer the actual timbre of her voice.

The two recordings I really enjoy (there may be others I haven't heard) are Bellini's *I Capuleti e i Montecchi* with Baker as Romeo and her *Manon*, which has something of the French style about it, even if ultimately I still prefer De Los Angeles.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

I can remember Sills performing with the Muppets and doing a tap dance to boot! She also performed Pigoletto with them:

[video=dailymotion;xa8xn5]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xa8xn5_the-muppet-show-pigoletto-beverly-s_fun[/video]


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

DavidA said:


> I can remember Sills performing with the Muppets and doing a tap dance to boot! She also performed Pigoletto with them:
> 
> [video=dailymotion;xa8xn5]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xa8xn5_the-muppet-show-pigoletto-beverly-s_fun[/video]


Why are there no songs from Rigoletto in Pigoletto?


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Always been a big "Bubbles" fan. Always so much feeling in her singing.
Her Traviata with Gedda is still my favorite.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)




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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

This is my Toastmaster speech I did on her a number of years ago. It is one of my most popular entries on Youtube. The piece I feature in the video, " Myself I Shall Adore" is not to be believed. I saw her at the Mississippi Colliseum miked in a Traviata exerpt eons ago. I spoke with her in person. She was gorgeous in person. She was very, very nice to this boy from Dixie.


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## Faustian (Feb 8, 2015)

I consider her recording of Manon essential.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Sills knew she had a lightweight instrument and it frustrated her. One of her typical quips was "I was born with the mind of Birgit Nilsson and the voice of Beverly Sills." My introduction to her was the recital of Bellini and Donizetti arias, made in the '60s when her voice was in its prime. I then heard her wonderful Cleopatra, and then her classic Baby Doe; if her singing of the "Willow Song" doesn't have you reaching for the tissues, you must be out of tissues.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I_ never_ get tired of her.

I absolute adore The Lucia recording with Bergonzi.

The scene and duet at the end of act 1, is second to none.:tiphat:


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

And this is so Miss Sills:



:clap:


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Sills knew she had a lightweight instrument and it frustrated her. One of her typical quips was "I was born with the mind of Birgit Nilsson and the voice of Beverly Sills." My introduction to her was the recital of Bellini and Donizetti arias, made in the '60s when her voice was in its prime. I then heard her wonderful Cleopatra, and then her classic Baby Doe; if her singing of the "Willow Song" doesn't have you reaching for the tissues, you must be out of tissues.


Thanks for posting that. Really lovely.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Pugg said:


> And this is so Miss Sills:
> 
> 
> 
> :clap:


She also said, "Better 10 years like Callas than twenty like anyone else."


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## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

> GregMitchell: She also said, "Better 10 years like Callas than twenty like anyone else."


I love the way that woman thinks!

I of course love her cute personality as well.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

DavidA said:


> I can remember Sills performing with the Muppets and doing a tap dance to boot! She also performed Pigoletto with them:
> 
> [video=dailymotion;xa8xn5]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xa8xn5_the-muppet-show-pigoletto-beverly-s_fun[/video]


I bought that DVD special for Miss Sills.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

I wish they'd make a nice box set of her operas and recitals.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Itullian said:


> I wish they'd make a nice box set of her operas and recitals.


I know! I'd buy that in a heartbeat!!!!

I've been into french barony lately and found that Charpentier has an opera she recorded! Louise. Need to order that eventually


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Suor Angelica : Beverly Sills Frances Bible

New for, me that is.

Suor Angelica Beverly Sills
la princesse - Frances Bible
l'abesse : Charlotte Povia
la maitresse des novices Kay Creed
Suor Genovieva Joan Summers
Suor Dolcina Donna Owen
La Suora Zelatrice Beverly Evans


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Thank you for sharing Pugg! I love Suor Angelica and of course most everyone on the forum knows how I feel about Beverly Sills. I heard one clip of senza mama sung by Sills previously but the sound quality was so rough I could barely discern that it was her. Hoping this one is better


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