Jackie, Oh!

AN aging diva has to ask some hard questions: When to retire? How much decline to accept? When to quit opera? How long to hang on in song recitals? What to sing?

Of course, different divas come up with different answers. Beverly Sills determined not to sing a note past 50 (though she agreed to a “Jingle Bells” with President Reagan). Leontyne Price bowed out of opera in 1985, then gave song recitals until 1998, when she was 71. (She came out of retirement just the other week, to participate in a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall for a World Trade Center fund. Someone had said, “It would be good to get someone like Leontyne Price.” Someone else had replied, “Why not Leontyne Price?”) The Italian soprano Magda Olivero went on for something like forever, and never really embarrassed herself.

About the Author

Jay Nordlinger

Jay Nordlinger was a senior editor of National Review and a book fellow at National Review Institute.

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AN aging diva has to ask some hard questions: When to retire? How much decline to accept? When to quit opera? How long to hang on in song recitals? What to sing?

Of course, different divas come up with different answers. Beverly Sills determined not to sing a note past 50 (though she agreed to a “Jingle Bells” with President Reagan). Leontyne Price bowed out of opera in 1985, then gave song recitals until 1998, when she was 71. (She came out of retirement just the other week, to participate in a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall for a World Trade Center fund. Someone had said, “It would be good to get someone like Leontyne Price.” Someone else had replied, “Why not Leontyne Price?”) The Italian soprano Magda Olivero went on for something like forever, and never really embarrassed herself.