Sad news about Beverly Sills

Take a look at this AP story about the famed soprano. She sang at Cincinnati Opera at the Zoo, 1965 to 68, and in 1971 to 74, when the opera moved into Music Hall. She wrote about her Zoo days in "Bubbles," her memoir, about how the "green room" was really green. When she sang Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor with John Alexander as Edgar and Dominic Cossa as Henry Ashton (conducted by Anton Guadgano), it was the artistic highlight of the summer, wrote Charlotte Shockley and Eldred Thierstein in "Cincinnati Opera: From the Zoo to Music Hall."

"Miss Sills embellished Lucia's arias with frills that are entirely her own, and she tossed them off with crystalline clarity. Her trills were all but flawless, and her marksmanship in difficult coloratura was awesome," wrote Opera News about the event.

And I'm sure no Cincinnati Opera fan will ever forget 1974, when Miss Sills brought one of her Tudor Queens to Music Hall in Donizetti's "Roberto Devereux."

Photo: Mary Altoffer, AP