Word just in that Beverly Sills, the soprano from Crown Heights who enjoyed an illustrious career on the world’s great opera stages but made her name as a 25-year fixture at City Opera, has succumbed to her recently-announced battle with lung cancer. I’m a bit young to remember her performing career, but I will always remember Sills as one of the great performing arts administrators in the history of this country: first as General Director of City Opera, then as Chairwoman of Lincoln Center, and finally as Chairwoman of the Metropolitan Opera. Her plainspokenness, tireless energy, and great good humor are qualities encountered far too rarely in today’s arts scene. She will be sorely missed.