Conductor Thomas Schippers gave the downbeat at 8 p.m. But the show that everyone had been waiting for did not begin until 8:22. That was when Beverly Sills emerged from the wings at the Metropolitan Opera to join her fellow Greeks in the grim doings of Rossini's The Siege of Corinth. Looking slender and vulnerable in a long blue gown, Sills moved down a small set of stairs, but never had a chance to sing her opening line, "Che mat sento?"(What do I hear?). She knew what she heard—a minute-long roar of welcome not...
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