Saluting Sills

Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera, and the New York City Opera will host a public tribute to legendary soprano Beverly Sills on September 16, the institutions announced yesterday. The event will feature opera stars such as Anna Netrebko and speakers such as Mayor Bloomberg and Henry Kissinger. Sills, who died on July 2, served as the general director of the NYCO and as the first female chairman of the board of Lincoln Center after her long tenure as a renowned singer.

The free event will be open to the public, and tickets for the evening will be available on a firstcome, first-served basis at the Metropolitan Opera box office beginning at noon on September 16.

In addition to Mayor bloomberg and Mr. Kissinger, Placido Domingo, Barbara Walters, Carol Burnett, and the conductor and former general director of the NYCO, Julius Rudel, are scheduled to speak at the event. The winner of the first annual beverly Sills Award, baritone Nathan Gunn, will perform alongside sopranos Ms. Netrebko and Natalie Dessay. The music director of the Metropolitan Opera, James Levine, will play the piano.

The Met will also dedicate its free, open-house dress rehearsal of donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" on September 20 to Sills.