In 1979, one of the world’s most decorated operatic sopranos stood on the set of The Muppet Show in a sparkling gown, laughing through a high-note contest with Miss Piggy. This episode traces the extraordinary life of Beverly Sills, born Belle Miriam Silverman in Brooklyn in 1929, from a five-language-speaking child radio star nicknamed Bubbles to an international opera powerhouse and a fiercely effective arts executive.

We follow her grueling teenage tours in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, her 1951 operatic debut in Carmen, and the devastating diagnoses of her two children that nearly halted her career. We explore how that grief deepened her lyric coloratura voice, how her 1966 Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare made her a global star, and how Metropolitan Opera manager Rudolf Bing locked her out until 1975, when she finally received an 18-minute ovation. We then follow her pivot to the boardroom, rescuing the New York City Opera and eventually chairing Lincoln Center and the Met itself.

• Winning a beautiful baby contest at three and Major Bowes’ amateur hour at ten
• Competing on Arthur Godfrey’s show under the fake name Vicki Lynn
• Bypassing elite gatekeepers with Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett, and her Emmy-winning television show
• Her ovarian cancer surgery in 1974 and return to the stage one month later
• Choosing heavy dramatic roles like Roberto Devereux that she knew would shorten her singing career