Sills Show Segment

Keynote Speaker at the 1996 AARP Convention in Denver Colorado. Ms Sills spoke to the crowd, who greeted her remarks enthusiastically.

......others, we truly live. Dr. Andrus could have easily been referring to our Keynote Speaker, Beverly Sills. We know her for her warm smile and incredible talent. She has sung in virtually all of the world's leading opera houses. She has recorded 18 full length operas and several solo discs earning her two Emmy awards, a Grammy award and Europe's Edison award. Yet the essence of Beverly Sills, that essential ingredient as Dr. Andrus put it, is a commitment to serving others. Year after year she uses her celebrity as a means to enrich the lives of those in need in our society. Through her work for the March of Dimes for example, she has helped to raise more than 80 million to combat birth defects. Without question, her commitment to the youth of America is unmatched and what impresses me most about Beverly Sills, is her willingness to step away from the limelight and the fanfare and put these less fortunate center stage. So while I am delighted to share this podium with such a talented performer, I am even more honored that we both share a simple but prestigious title, volunteer. Beverly Sills selfless commitment to others is a constant inspiration to all of us and as with her music, she has that rare ability to stir our hearts and minds. In a very special way, Beverly Sills shows every day that the human contribution is the essential ingredient and through her words and deeds, she reminds all of us that it is in the giving to others that we truly live. Please join me in welcoming the incomparable singer and tireless volunteer, Beverly Sills. Beverly.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. That's the nicest one I've ever received. Thank you. It's always a pleasure for me to come to Denver so I want to thank you for deciding to have your convention here. I was singing in Denver in the very early days of my career. As a matter of fact, I remember the very first time I came here. I came with a very young tenor who has since became quite, become quite famous. At the time he didn't speak much English which didn't prevent him from wanting to speak in English all the time and when we arrived, we were interviewed by a reporter here in Denver who asked if we were not having trouble singing because of the altitude and did we feel restless. And before I could answer, he said, "Oh yes. Is very difficult." he said. "The voice, she comes in short pants." I must admit that whenever I stand in front of an audience as large as this, I think to myself, "Why am I talking, I should be singing." I still haven't quite gotten it. Well, that brings me to the woman yesterday in LaGuardia who said to me, "Are you going to Denver to sing?" And I said, "No, I'm going to talk." And she said, "Oh my God, that's terrible." So, I admit from time to time I have an identity crisis and a great many of you have asked me whether I was going to sing for you this morning. I don't sing anymore. I retired when I was 50 years old, some 17 years ago. It's just that there are so many recordings and performances that were taped left behind, that people still have the impression that I do sing. I don't and it probably accounts for the woman who followed me around in Bloomingdales and finally said to me, "Oh I know you, didn't you used to be Beverly Sills." I told this story once to the great, probably the greatest dramatic soprano of my time. Certainly the black, beautiful Leontyne Price. And when I told her the story she just laughed and never made any comment and a short time after that, we were involved in a broadcast from PBS, I'm sure some of you have seen them. They used to be called, they still are, The Gala of Stars and I was the host and we went from one theater to another all around the world showing the audience all of these very beautiful opera houses and and theaters. And this one performance took place in Radio City Music Hall. I was way over in the corner with my little microphone and a little earplug connected to the Director of the television show in the bus outside. And, Radio City Music Hall has three stages and while you are seeing the presentation, a stage is being set above and below so that they, simply by hydraulic device, raise it and lower it so there are never any pauses which is very good for a television show. And at this particular performance, Leontyne Price had just finished singing beautifully and the house was just roaring and the stage began to go down and on the level above was Mr. Neuriave who was coming next to do his ballet. And the hydraulic lift stuck and there was Leontyne from the bosom up just there, and this man screaming in my ear, "Get to the center of the stage and fill in, we have a major problem." So I ran to the middle and there was my friend Leontyne. Couldn't think of anything so I said to her, "Tell me Lee, what's new." and she said, "Well Beverly, the funniest thing happened to me. I was in a department store and a woman came over to me and said, "I know you, you're Joan Sutherland." And I said, "Leontyne, what did you say to her?" "Well," she said, "I looked at her and said, 'No, I am not Joan Sutherland, I'm Beverly Sills.'" at which point, thank Heaven, she disappeared. Opera is very ambivalent about the aging process. The operatic audience which I compare most of the time to the audience that goes to a bullfight, is ready to cheer at beautiful and vibrant tones and they are rather intolerant when a high note goes astray. They are also very intolerant if the voice begins to lose a little bit of its youthful sheen and often you'll hear phrases like the Veteran Soprano or the Tenor's voice has lost some of its youthful sheen. And sometimes this comes at a time of our performing lives which would be considered prime years in any other profession. On the other hand, when I was way over 40, I was on the cover of Newsweek magazine appearing as the 17 year old heroine in an Opera called Monote and shortly after that I was on the cover of Time magazine portraying a 63 year old Queen Elizabeth in an opera called Roberto Deveroux. But the operatic world is color blind and age indifferent except for the sound of that voice. Now I retired 17 years ago. The reason I retired at 50, was because I wanted people to say, "It's too soon." rather than, "When is that woman ever going to quit." Also, in the beginning of my career, when I played that 17 year old girl and the 63 year old queen, it took 15 minutes of makeup to become 17 and 2 hours of makeup to become the queen. Towards the end it was taking 2 hours to become 17 and 15 minutes to become 63 so I knew it was time to go. I retired from the operatic stage and became the General Director of the New York City Opera. That's the company with such artists as Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, Cheryl Milns, and, if I may in modesty, include myself in that pack, we made our New York Operatic Debuts. I ran the place for ten years and retired again. I was then asked to become Chairman of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts which is my current job. But I do appear to be making a very big career of retirements. I'm on three corporate boards, each of which has a retirement age of 70. So when I think of all the retirements I have to look forward to, it's mind boggling. I retired as Chairman of the March of Dimes after 22 years of service. I like this retirement business a lot. Especially in the non-profit volunteer world. One can go on volunteering and retiring forever. But Margaret Meade once said, "If you look closely, you will see that anything that embodies our deepest commitment to the way human life should be lived and cared for depends on some form, often many forms, of volunteerism." Americans have traditionally volunteered their time and energy and money whether it's at the local hospital, church, synagogue, opera house, ballet, symphony, museums, it doesn't matter. There is, in our country, a tradition of volunteerism that is unequaled in any other part of the world. Our army of volunteers is the most powerful army in the world. It's us at our very best giving our most precious God given commodity, ourselves. One of the qualities that separates us two legged animals from the four legged ones, is compassion. It's what makes us stand up tall rather than crawling around on all fours. Because when one stands up tall, our arms are freed to reach out to our fellow human beings and say, "Let me help you." All of you here today have become shareholders in lives of your fellow creatures. Our volunteer army fights wars that save lives and the battle cry is loving and caring and God knows there's little enough of that around today. The volunteer army gets larger and stronger and more innovative. I recently visited a childrens' hospital. One little girl, I was told, was terminally ill and every day for over a month she had been read to by this one gentleman. What was unusual was that he was 80, he was blind, and his Mother Goose book was in Braille. Volunteers are people who want to feel that they have helped to change for the better just one persons life. These are people who, when asked to help, to change for the better just one persons life always say, "Of course I will." and never say, "I'm a little bit busy now." People who want to bring beauty and comfort to a fellow human beings life, someone who may live in a world you wouldn't want to be caught dead in, you can change all that. Dr. Andrus, our founder almost 40 years ago, wrote of promoting purpose for older people and of enhancing the quality of life for older people. Well it's a more complex life today than it was in 1958. Today we live with AIDS, drugs, crime, teenage pregnancy, air pollution, water pollution, homeless people, and worst of all, we have elected officials who have lost touch with us and behave as if they are a monarchy. We have elected officials, we have elected officials who, unfortunately, are not as smart as we are and do not represent our needs. Promises that were made to us, our present elected officials now threaten our quality of life by feeling that these promises do not necessarily have to be kept. They need a lesson in morals and ethics. They talk of a contract with America but no negotiations appear to be taking place. At least, nobody has asked for my input. I'm one of those people throughout a very long singing career, read every word of every contract I ever signed. I'm perfectly willing to sign one, but please let me read it first. I don't know why, but health care, child care, education are always the targets. I don't remember electing these officials because they said the only way to balance the budget or reduce the deficit is by reducing the quality of lives of our older citizens or our children. Quite the contrary. So you should all be very proud of what you've accomplished and the extraordinary impact that you've made and we must keep on going. We must all get more and more involved, form alliances, influence, choose our elected officials more carefully, influence newspapers, television. We have a very powerful voice. We must use it and let's not be quiet about efforts and our accomplishments. I heard today that you are 32 million strong. That is an enormous voting block and I know from personal experience 32 million voices can make a lot of noise. There is such a thing as American know how. When we want something done, we know how to do it and it is obvious from what you've accomplished that you have a deep, abiding, heart felt reverence for all life. Dr. Albert Schweitzer said, "Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing." and because I have been talking to you about retirement, I would like to tell you what, for me, was the ultimate retirement event in my life. The last time I sang a performance in San Francisco was in the late 70's. Luciano Pavorrati and I had come to do Lucia De Lam Amore and it was a kind of circus event. For me it was the end of a farewell tour and I knew I would never be coming back to that city to sing. The press knew it and I had probably done in the five weeks that I was there, 40 interviews and I had decided not to do any more. It was becoming a very emotional experience for me and I just felt enough was enough. So I called Cort Adela who was head of the San Francisco Opera and I said, "Cort, no more interviews. I've just had enough." and he said, "Beverly, do one more. The man's name is Paul Hurdlendy and he's been very kind to the opera company and he's a great fan of yours." Well of course that's irresistible for a Prima Donna. So I said, "OK, tomorrow at 12 noon and that's it." So the following day I went down to the beauty shop in the hotel to have my hair done. I went to the woman at the desk before and I said, "I'm expecting a Mr. Paul Hurdlendy and if I'm a few minutes late, tell him I'm expecting him." I went and had my hair done, came up a little bit late and I ran to the desk and I said, "Has Mr. Hurdlendy come?" and she pointed to this man with the attaché case and I went over to him and I said, "I'm so sorry I'm late. You can come up now." and the two of us got into the elevator. I normally would have spoken to him but in those days they had operators working the elevators so I spoke to her instead. We got off at my floor and as we were walking down the hall I thought to myself, "I've really got to make this a short one. I've just done too many of them." So we got to my apartment and I said, "Please come in and sit down. This will have to be a quickie because I have another appointment after you." at which point the telephone rang and I picked it up and the voice said, "Ms. Sills, this is Paul Hurdlendy and I just saw you go up in the elevator. May I come up now?" and I said, "Yes indeed and the sooner the better." and I put the phone down and measured the distance between me and the door and this man and the door and realized that even if I ran for it, we were going to have a dead heat so I thought the best thing to do is to be very cool and stall so I said to him, "Well, there seems to have been a mistake made." and he said, "Yes I know." and I said, "Well if you knew, why did you come up with me?" and he said, "Ms. Sills, I come from Grand Rapids, Michigan and my wife and I, we watch you on the Johnny Carson Show all the time and when I go home and tell her that Beverly Sills invited me up for a quickie, she'll never believe us." For me, that was the ideal moment to retire. I hope you have a wonderful convention. I hope you continue to do all the wonderful work that you have been doing. I have a husband who's turning 80 and he's very proud of his AARP card and so am I and I hope we'll meet again soon. Thank you.