Beverly Sills Interview
DAVID KANZEG: How'd you first become
acquainted with Baby Doe?
BEVERLY SILLS: Well, Douglas Moore
asked me to do the opera….when he first wrote it. And I wasn't
able to do it; to go Central City. I waited for the New York premiere.
Uh….And that was my first acquaintanceship with her. I'd never…I'd
vaguely heard about her before, but I really didn't know who she was
until I met up with Douglas.
DK: I presume you had a good deal
of research then before you did the role?
BS: We did it, but it was actually
done for me, because Douglas was so intent upon having the production
as well as the people as authentic looking and performing as possible
so that….loads of books were sent me; lots by a woman whose
name was, I believe, Caroline Bancroft.
DK: Yes. I've corresponded with her.
BS: Yes. I have too. And then of
course I visited out…took all my children out on a trip to Central
City. We really had a very very interesting time.
DK: Was there any…uh…decision
based upon the fact that you bare a striking resemblance to the early
photographs of Baby Doe?
BS: Well, no. As a matter of fact,
the hairdo that I wore I copied from the photograph, which I believe
is in the museum out there. Um…the uh…'course I'm much
bigger than Baby Doe was. She was a very tiny blonde lady. And the
only concession I made was that I made my hair blonde for it. And
I based my characterization on a line in The Ballad of Baby Doe,
which Douglas wrote, where he describes her as "a fluffy kitten
on a satin pillow."
DK: (laughs) Uh huh!
BS: So that's the picture I very
much had to keep that in my head as I was playing her.
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