Sills Bows Out as Opera’s Chair

Beverly Sills, the hometown diva who became a major fundraiser for the Metropolitan Opera, resigned Tuesday as the organization’s chairwoman, citing personal reasons.

“It’s the right time to leave and concentrate on my family,” Sills, 75, said in a statement. “I know that I have achieved what I set out to do.”

Sills sang for international audiences for more than three decades before retiring from the stage in 1980. She then launched a career as an executive and leader of New York’s performing arts community. In 1994, she became the first woman and the first former artist to chair the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

After leading Lincoln Center through eight boom years and launching a redevelopment project, she retired in 2002, only to emerge six months later to head the Metropolitan Opera.

Sills has been in poor health recently, having suffered a fall that put her in a wheelchair.