Education and Early Career
Born Phyllis Smith in Clarksburg, West Virginia, Curtin studied singing with Olga Averino at Wellesley College where she earned a bachelors degree in international relations. She pursued graduate studies in vocal performance under Boris Goldovsky at the New England Conservatory. In 1946 she made her professional opera debut with Goldovsky's opera company, the New England Opera Theater, as Tatyana in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. She sang several more roles with the company over the next seven years, including a much admired portrayal of Countess Almaviva in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro (1947). In 1950, Curtin performed in the inaugural year of the Peabody Mason Concerts in Boston.
In 1953 Curtin joined the roster of principal sopranos at the New York City Opera at the invitation of Joseph Rosenstock. She made her debut with the company on October 22, 1953 portraying three roles (Fraulein Burstner, Frau Grubach, and Leni) in the United States premiere of Gottfried von Einem's The Trial. She remained committed to the NYCO through 1960, where her roles included Alice Ford in Falstaff, Antonia in The Tales of Hoffmann, Countess Almaviva, Cressida in Troilus and Cressida, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Frau Fluth in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Katharina in Vittorio Giannini's The Taming of the Shrew, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande, Norina in Don Pasquale, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, Violetta in La traviata, and the title role in Salome. She also sang two roles in operas by Carlisle Floyd with the NYCO that she had previously created in their world premieres: the title role Susannah (which she sang at Florida State University for its 1955 world premiere) and Catherine Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights (which she sang at the Santa Fe Opera for its 1958 premiere).
Curtin was also active as a guest artist with numerous opera companies during the 1950s. Since 1953 she appeared with some frequency at the Royal Opera, London at Covent Garden. She also sang the role of Thérèse in the American premiere of Francis Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tirésias at Brandeis University (BU) in 1953. She returned to BU two years later to portray the title role in Darius Milhaud's Médée. In 1956 she toured the United States with the NBC Opera Company as Countess Almaviva with Walter Cassel as the Count, Adelaide Bishop as Sussana, Ralph Herbert as Figaro, and Frances Bible as Cherubino. In 1957 she sang the role of Elena in Christoph Willibald Gluck's Paride ed Elena with the American Opera Society. In 1958 she sang Susannah at the Brussels World's Fair. In the 1959-1960 season she sang two roles with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company: Rosalinde and Susannah. In 1959 she made her debut at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and sang Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at the Glyndebourne Festival. She also made appearances at the Aspen Music Festival, the Bethlehem Bach Festival, the Cincinnati Opera, the Tanglewood Music Festival, and appeared in concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and The Little Orchestra Society during the 1950s.
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