Renowned Opera Singer Also Was a Cultural Leader

After completing her formal education as a teenager, she began singing for pay in 1945 in a Gilbert and Sullivan company. Two years later, she went from operetta to opera, playing a gypsy in "Carmen" in Philadelphia.

In the 1950s, she toured, finally arriving back in New York in 1955 with the New York City Opera.

It was try and try again for Sills. The New York City Opera debut followed several years of falling short at auditions. But once accepted, she went on for a quarter-century, in classical and modern roles.

Eleven years into her work at the New York City Opera came a performance that Sills regarded as a signal achievement. In 1966, she sang Cleopatra in Handel's "Giulio Cesare" at the Lincoln Center. By then, she wrote in an autobiography, she could judge opera, and knew that hers "was one of the great performances of all time" at the center.

For the next 20 years, she was perhaps the queen of American opera. Although difficulties with the management of the Metropolitan Opera kept her from performing there for years, she was a fixture with the City Opera and was regarded as one of the landmarks of the New York City cultural scene.

She was greeted rapturously at her debut at Milan's La Scala, and she sang in London's Covent Garden. The passage of time and the retirement of Rudolf Bing brought her at last to the Met in 1975, where the applause after her debut was said to last almost 20 minutes.

Subsequently, in addition to singing at the Met, she continued at the City Opera, while giving recitals and touring college campuses. Her infectious laugh was often heard on talk shows.

She retired from performing in 1980, moving into the administrative work that was credited with bringing a firm financial footing to the company that had long been her artistic home.

She was Lincoln Center's chairman from 1994 to 2002, when she became chairman of the Met. She gave up that post 2 1/2 years ago. It was reported that the decision was prompted by the need to place her husband in a nursing home after years in which she had provided his care. He reportedly had Alzheimer's disease. He died last year at 89.

Survivors include their son, who is known as Bucky, and their daughter, known as Muffy.

Muffy was born deaf, and Bucky has been described as autistic. At one time, almost 50 years ago, she suspended her career to care for them. Later, in response to their conditions, she had headed the board of the March of Dimes Foundation and was national chairman of the Mothers March.