Beverly Sills, a distinctive diva, dies at 78 Beverly Sills dies of cancer at 78

Beverly Sills, 78, one of the greatest and most distinctive opera singers to emerge in the United States in the 20th century, died yesterday of cancer, her manager said.

Ms. Sills' inoperable lung cancer was made public just last month. She died about 9 o'clock last night, said her manager, Edgar Vincent.

Although Ms. Sills retired from performing 27 years ago, she never ceased to be a crucial figure: Shortly before retirement, she became the administrative head of the New York City Opera, the company that had nurtured her, and saved it from financial ruin. Later she was a key figure in Lincoln Center's administration, even as she continued to lend her warmth and charisma to Live from Lincoln Center and Metropolitan Opera simulcasts.

She was the mother figure of American opera. Or daughter figure. Or big-sister figure. As one intimate put it, to know about Ms. Sills was to feel as though you were related.

Only months ago, she was on the Metropolitan Opera simulcast of I Puritani, joking between scenes that the opera had notes so high "only a dog can hear them."

Born Belle Miriam Silverman in Brooklyn in 1929, she was the rarest of child prodigy musicians - a singer.

She appeared on numerous radio shows before undergoing serious vocal training with Estelle Liebling, an expert in bel canto opera who taught her the kind of dramatic values that insisted text came first, music second. That molded her into an intelligent and resourceful singing actress. All the while, Ms. Sills memorized recordings by the then-reigning coloratura soprano Lily Pons, and spoke fluent French at a young age, thanks to a French nanny.

She toured in various shows billed as "the youngest diva in captivity," but continued serious vocal study, commuting weekly to Philadelphia for lessons with Giuseppe Bamboschek, a Caruso-era conductor. In her official operatic debut, she was Micaela in a 1947 Philadelphia Civic Opera production of Carmen. Her breakthrough performance with the New York City Opera in Handel's Julius Caesar came in 1966.