Can Effervescence Be Eternal?

Belle Silverman, you will be missed. If I wanted to be cheeky, I suppose I'd say that Bubbles has finally burst . . . but I don't want to be cheeky. I just heard that opera soprano Beverly Sills died last night. She was the least diva-like of divas, projecting an openness and a down-to-earthiness that oddly never clashed with her truly ethereal voice.

She retired from singing 27 years ago, when she was 51. Her coloratura was already somewhat in decline by the time she achieved her greatest singing fame and made her best-known recordings in the 20 years before that. I can but imagine The Voice in her prime. But I mourn her passing as deeply as if I'd been alive to hear her sing at the top of her powers in the 1940s.

Ms. Sills was truly an original, the first American opera superstar, and at the same time, just plain folks. I cannot picture her in my mind without seeing her smile--and without seeing that shock of red, red hair. Nor can I think of her without admiring the essense of contradiction her life and legacy personify. C'mon! An opera star, who was born in Brooklyn?!? A rather husky speaking voice which produced the most angelic, delicate songs? "Bubbles," the diva? Her graciousness and class shone through, even when she had to make hard-nosed business decisions while running the City Opera of New York and also holding the reins at the Lincoln Center. And always, that voice--so delicate, but pulsing with strength, sureness, and power.

I do not pretend to have an iota of her gifts, but being a red-head myself, and having had (before my lung disease ruined my instrument) a bit of a talent for singing on key, I can at once revel in the beauty of her voice and sorrow for the pain she suffered in dying of lung cancer . . . especially since she, like me, was a life-long non-smoker. Besides, I am--or, more properly, was--only a mezzo soprano. Even when my voice was at its best, I couldn't dream of singing the things she sang. I could appreciate them, though, and believe me, I do.

I am eternally grateful that such things as film, video tapes, LPs, and remastered CDs of some of her most celebrated performances exist. So Bubbles is effervescent . . . and eternal . . . all at once. As she herself may have commented, "Ain't technology grand?"