In a sense, I revolutionized the operatic scene because I proved you can make a great international career without the Metropolitan. I’m the only singer who’s done that, and I’m proud of that, so it’s all worked out for the best. Beverly Sills Read Quote
I frequently say that I never share blame, I never share credit, and I never share desserts! Beverly Sills Read Quote
I got out while they were still fighting to buy tickets to hear me. I believe in getting out when you’re on top, and that’s what I did. Beverly Sills Read Quote
I think you have to take everything that looks like a blow and turn it into a triumph. This is where my energy comes from: I just won’t be licked. Beverly Sills Read Quote
You see why we play so many crazy ladies. We have to be crazy to start with. Beverly Sills Read Quote
My father died five days before I returned to New York. He was only fifty-three years old. My parents and my father’s doctor had all decided it was wiser for me to go to South America than to stay home and see Papa waste away. For a long time, I felt an enormous sense of guilt about having left my father’s side when he was so sick. Beverly Sills Read Quote
Opera became popular in Texas the same way it did in a lot of previously isolated regions of the nation. It started with money. In the case of Texas, it was oil money, and it made a lot of people very rich, very fast. Beverly Sills Read Quote
The ‘Daughter of the Regiment’ that I did in Boston was vintage Sarah Caldwell, which is to say it was brilliant. Before my career was over, I’m sure I sang the role of Marie at least a hundred times, often in productions that cost a fortune, but none touched hers. Beverly Sills Read Quote
When I was general director of City Opera, we were pioneers in the practice of projecting supertitles so that American audiences finally could know what all the singing was about. Beverly Sills Read Quote
I began by listening to my mother’s collection of Amelita Galli-Curci and Lily Pons records, and then was taken (at age eight) to hear Pons at a Met performance of Lakme. It was at that moment that I decided to become an opera star. Not just an opera singer, but an opera star! Beverly Sills Read Quote
