Beverly Sills is Giulietta with piano and high interpolations

THE SONGBIRD: Beverly Sills (1929 - 2007) was my first diva and the reason I became infatuated with coloratura sopranos and started collecting vocal music. Sills holds a special place in my musical life to this day so I'm happy to share this rare item that is not currently posted on YouTube. Sills sang the role of Bellini's Giulietta in only one production -- three performances in Boston in 1975 -- and recorded it commercially that same year. However, she programmed Giulietta's well-known cavatina at least 40 times in concert and recital beginning in 1964, and included it in her first solo aria recital disc made in 1968.

THE MUSIC: The best known aria from Bellini's "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" -- his operatic version of the Romeo and Juliet story which was written for Venice in 1830 -- is Giulietta's gorgeous cavatina "Oh! quante volte." It introduces the young girl as she is pining for Romeo. It's a serene scene of suspended, dreamy bel canto lyricism that many light lyric and lyric-coloratura sopranos are drawn to.