Beverly : An Autobiography

Rating:
Summary: In Her Own Words: The Life Of An American Opera Singer
Review: Beverly Sills was born in New York in 1929. She is now in her seventies and Chairman at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. She epitomized the iconic American opera singer, bringing the pleasures of opera, which has always been the stereotypical European pasttime to America. And what's more, Beverly Sills made opera fun, accessible and highly entertaining. Her career was obscure before she hit it big in the 60's and 70's. She had sung on the radio and on television in much the same manner as Shirley Temple did (though we know that Shirley outshone Beverly on this) and she began to tour with American operetta companies, like the Schubert Opera Company, singing Viennese operettas such as The Merry Widow and the more famous Johann Strauss operettas, Die Fledermaus, etc. Eventually, as all true sopranos do, she moved up into other roles, her first non-operetta roles were Micaela in Bizet's Carmen. In her candid biography, Beverly admits that she was turned down for The New York City Opera several times before she was finally acknowledged. This is a good lesson to sopranos everywhere who are trying to make it. Don't give up. Persistance and a confident attitude is highly important. Beverly continues to tell us about her life and opera career in this engaging biography, well-written, smart, funny and conversational.

BEVERLY'S LIFE was blessed with a successful opera career, a loving husband- journalist Peter Greenough and children. When Beverly's children were diagnosed with impediments- such as deafness, Beverly had to put her career on hold to raise her children. She is not only an excellent opera singer but a first class human being, selfless and hard-working. Beverly has advocated human rights and has participated in The March Of Dimes as well as other causes and charities, has won a Grammy award for her performance in the opera Manon, and has won two of the highest awards in the world- the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the French Legion Award. In addition to her opera career, her biographies (other than this one there is also her other biographies including "Bubbles"), Beverly has done a lot of "tv" time- she appeared in the Ed Sullivan Show singing Donizetti, substituted for Johnny Carson one time when he fell ill, and hosted her own tv talk show in the late 70's "Lifestyles With Beverly Sills" in which she was often paired with actor Danny Kaye, singer Julie Andrews and comedian Carrol Burnett. She was in "The Muppet Show" singing duets with Miss Piggy and one time even appeared in the San Diego phone book. What a life it's been.

BEVERLY'S CAREER: All the nuances and backstage stories of her opera performances are to be found here. Beverly talks of her dislike for the role of The Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute. The character has only two high-calibre arias and a finale ensemble but for the most part the Queen is backstage waiting her cue. Beverly amazed audiences at the Vienna State Opera singing the Queen's high F's in late 1960's. Her performance in Handel's Julius Caesar launched her career. It was her Cleopatra, with the taxing coloratura and lyricism that got her officially recognized. She had sung in English before in Douglas Moore's original opera of the late 50's "The Ballad Of Baby Doe". She would continue singing lyric coloratura roles such as Lakme, Zerbinetta (Ariadne of Naxos) Lucia Di Lammermoor, Manon, Thais, Marie from "La Fille Du Regiment", Violetta from La Traviata and Queen Marguerite from Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots as well as Queen Shemakha from "Coq D'Or." But this was only the beginning. From 1970 to 1973, Beverly performed a revival of Donizetti's Tudor Queen Trilogy- Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux for the New York City Opera, her beloved home company. These roles are demanding and risky for a light-voiced soprano, but although Beverly admits to having shortened her opera career because of these heavy roles, she reaped its benefits because they were sold-out, sensational performances that no other soprano has since surpassed. It was the role of the fiery Queen Elizabeth that landed her a cover in Time magazine and marked her best moment in her opera career. Other fiery, challenging roles Beverly tackled included Lucrezia Borgia and Norma, all to great acclaim. Beverly recorded several operas on LP's in the 70's several of which have been reissued on cd- including a lush box set of the Tudor Queen Trilogy of Donizetti, compilation albums of bel canto arias, Mozart and Strauss concert arias and her performances in brand name operas. We will never forget the glorious life of Beverly Sills.

Rating:
Summary: In Her Own Words: The Life Of An American Opera Singer
Review: I REALLY enjoyed this! I must say that this is a captivating and extremely well-written book. It's so conversational and light-hearted. She's delightfully frank and writes about every rumor and story you've heard about her. No frosting the truth here. She discusses in wonderful detail every experience, good, bad, scandelous, embarrasing happening that contributed to her fabulous career. After reading this, I found myself completely admiring this woman's strength, stamina, and courage. She had a lot to deal with in her life and got through it all admirably.

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Review: I REALLY enjoyed this! I must say that this is a captivating and extremely well-written book. It's so conversational and light-hearted. She's delightfully frank and writes about every rumor and story you've heard about her. No frosting the truth here. She discusses in wonderful detail every experience, good, bad, scandelous, embarrasing happening that contributed to her fabulous career. After reading this, I found myself completely admiring this woman's strength, stamina, and courage. She had a lot to deal with in her life and got through it all admirably.