Music: Durable Lily

The soprano who can trill for a quarter of a century on the coloratura's high and skittish vocal trapeze is a notable rarity; this musical generation has Lily Pons. At an age (about 48) when most coloraturas seek the terra firma of German Lieder (where they can be expected to last indefinitely), Trouper Lily pours out her Caro Nome, her Bell Song from Lakme and other acrobatic items of coloratura literature, and gives more than a dozen opera performances and two dozen concerts a year.

Outside Denver last week, looking little more than half her...

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