FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Beverly Sills (May 25, 1929 – July 2, 2007) was an American operatic soprano whose peak career was between the 1950s and 1970s.
Although she sang a repertoire from Handel and Mozart to Puccini, Massenet and Verdi, she was especially renowned for her performances in coloratura soprano roles in live opera and recordings. Sills was largely associated with the operas of Donizetti, of which she performed and recorded many roles. Her signature roles include the title role in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, the title role in Massenet’s Manon, Marie in Donizetti’s La fille du régiment, the three heroines in Offenbach‘s Les contes d’Hoffmann, Rosina in Rossini‘s The Barber of Seville, Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata, and most notably Elisabetta in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux.
The New York Times noted,
In her prime her technique was exemplary. She could dispatch coloratura roulades and embellishments, capped by radiant high Ds and E-flats, with seemingly effortless agility. She sang with scrupulous musicianship, rhythmic incisiveness and a vivid sense of text.[1]
NPR said her voice was “Capable of spinning a seemingly endless legato line, or bursting with crystalline perfection into waves of dazzling fioriture and thrilling high notes.”[2]
After retiring from singing in 1980, she became the general manager of the New York City Opera. In 1994, she became the chairwoman of Lincoln Center and then, in 2002, of the Metropolitan Opera, stepping down in 2005. Sills lent her celebrity to further her charity work for the prevention and treatment of birth defects.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
How can I remove mildew stains from clothing and towels?
Moisten the affected area with a mixture of lemon juice and salt, then dry it in the sun. If this does not work, try sponging it with hydrogen peroxide and then drying it in the sun.
Advice of the Day
The more red berries seen in the hedgerows, the more frost and snow in the coming winter.
Home Hint of the Day
To remove ugly stains on clothing from car batteries, make a paste of dry starch and cold water, apply the paste to the stain, and let the fabric sit for a while. Then rinse with water.
Word of the Day
Celestial sphere
An imaginary sphere projected into space that represents the entire sky, with an observer on Earth at its center. All celestial bodies other than Earth are imagined as being on its inside surface.
Puzzle of the Day
How does the transposition of the parts of a word express the difference between a welcome and a wish for your departure?
Wel-fare and fare-well.
Born
- James Cook (naval captain & explorer) – 1728
- Niccolo Paganini (composer, violinist) – 1782
- Isaac Singer (inventor) – 1811
- Kenyon Cox (painter) – 1856
- Theodore Roosevelt (26th U.S. president) – 1858
- Stamen Gigov Grigorov (Bulgarian physician, microbiologist) – 1878
- Enid Bagnold (author) – 1889
- Leif Erickson (actor) – 1911
- Dylan Thomas (poet) – 1914
- Nanette Fabray (actress) – 1920
- Sylvia Plath (poet) – 1932
- John Cleese (actor) – 1939
- Maxine Hong Kingston (author) – 1940
- Fran Lebowitz (writer) – 1950
- Simon Le Bon (musician) – 1958
Died
- James M. Cain (novelist) – 1977
- Rod Roddy (the flamboyantly dressed announcer on The Price is Right whose booming voice invited audience members to Come on down!” for nearly 20 years”) – 2003
- Betsy Drake (actress) – 2015
Events
- Massachusetts Bay Colony, having outlawed Quakers, hung two who defiantly returned to the colony. They were the first Quakers to be hanged in America.– 1659
- Harvard expedition observed solar eclipse in British-occupied Penobscot Bay, Maine– 1780
- The Treaty of San Lorenzo was signed between the United States and Spain, giving the United States the right to navigate the Mississippi River– 1795
- Macy’s Department store opened in N.Y.C.– 1858
- U.S. president-to-be Theodore Roosevelt married Alice Hathaway Lee– 1880
- At 16, Jascha Heifetz made his American debut at Carnegie Hall– 1917
- Dupont announced the invention of nylon– 1938
- 32-pound bull trout caught in Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho– 1949
- Saturn I first launched– 1961
- Last performance of opera singer Beverly Sills– 1980
- The Boston Red Sox won the World Series for the first time in 86 years, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0 in a four-game sweep– 2004
- 16-foot Burmese python caught in the Florida Everglades– 2011
Weather
- A storm deposited snow and sleet on Mississippi– 1843
- Eighty-three degrees F in Boston, Massachusetts– 1963
- -3 degrees Fahrenheit in Jump River, Wisconsin– 1976
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