Beverly Sills 1929 - 2007 Obituary

The opera singer and administrator Beverly Sills, who has died of lung cancer in Manhattan, aged 78, was among the most acclaimed bel canto sopranos to emerge from the United States after Maria Callas. Since retiring from the stage in 1980, she had run the company with which she was most associated, the New York City Opera, and raised millions of dollars as chair of the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center. She also lent her amiable presence and often wicked sense of humour to tele- casts from the Center, which she often hosted.

After retiring from the stage at the age of 51, Sills began a new life as an executive and leader of New York's performing arts community. Under her stewardship, the New York City Opera became the first in the US to use English supertitles. Then, in 1994, she became the first woman and first former artist to chair the Lincoln, leading it through eight boom years. She retired in 2002, saying she wanted "to smell the flowers a little bit". Six months later, she was back as chair of the Met - "So I smelled the roses and developed an allergy," she joked. She bowed out in January 2005, saying, "I know that I have achieved what I set out to do."

· Beverly Sills (Belle Miriam Silverman), opera singer and administrator, born May 25 1929; died July 2 2007.
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