Beverly "Bubbles" Sills, America's Queen of Opera 1929 - 2007

The voice of 1 of the greatest coloratura soprano opera singers of the 2oth Century has been silenced. Beverly Sill passed away from lung cancer on Mon 2 July 2007 at about 9:00 pm in her Manhatten home. Whether on the Met stage or on the Muppets her unique voice was unmistakeable. She made opera accessable to everyone. & even though she retired from singing she kept on working tirelessly for the music she loved.

Anyhow here are a few highlites of her career:

At age 7 singing"Arditi: Il bacio" in the 1938 short Uncle Sol Solves It.

1 of her best known roles "Baby Doe" about which she said in her 1976 autobiography: "I loved the role. I read everything that had ever been written about her. ... I absorbed her so completely in those five weeks of studying the opera that I knew her inside and out. I was Baby Doe."

As I said earlier, she loved opera but didn't take it so seriously that she couldn't have a liitle fun with it. Here is her appearance on The Muppet Show (Italiano version appropriately enough). She tries to perform Sempre Libera from Verdi's La Traviata, but, as you can see, the Muppets had other ideas. I guarentee you that all her years in opera never prepared her for a diva like Miss Piggy.

& here she is with Danny Kaye again showing that she could have fun & why she definitely deserved the nickname "Bubbles":

Here is the closing of her farewell performance. She ended the recital as she did every one of them with a song given her when she was 10 by her only voice teacher, Estelle Liebling. It is the Portuguese Folk Song: "Tell Me Why". She is performing with long time accompanist Charles Wadsworth.

Mille grazie Bubbles. America has lost a treasure.

Opera Star Beverly Sills Dead at 78