Brooklyn’s Belle Silverman, a.k.a. Beverly Sills
Jul 3rd, 2007 by Paul Moor
Due to my having left the USA for Europe as early as I did, I never even heard her live, let alone meet her, but her death so comparatively young saddens me every bit as much as if I had. Out of the recesses of my memory comes an apparently characteristic story I read long ago in some reliable place.
The congenital profound deafness of her little daughter, nicknamed Muffie, undoubtedly provided the dominant tragedy of her doting mother’s life. Even though she couldn’t actually hear her mother do her operatic thing, she could at least see her onstage, impersonating all those stylish ladies in their fancy costumes, so she got taken fairly frequently to opera performances where her mother royally queened it as only she could.
On one occasion, singing opposite the Italian tenor Gianni Raimondi, the character she portrayed died a few minutes before the final curtain came down and she dropped to the stage floor, now free to scan the front rows for Muffie. At that point she emitted a fierce stage whisper from floor level: “Gianni! Move your ass! I can’t see Muffie!” – from everything I ever heard about her from people who knew her well, Beverly Sills to the life.
