On November 4, 1960, Griffel made her stage debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago (LOC) as Mercedes in Georges Bizet's Carmen with Jean Madeira in the title role, Renata Scotto as Micaela, Giuseppe di Stefano as Don Jose, Robert Merrill as Escamillo, and Lovro von Matacic conducting.

[3] On August 20, 1973, Griffel made her debut at the Salzburg Festival as Sybille in the world premiere performance of Orff's De temporum fine comedia.

[3] On November 16, 1982, Griffel made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Elettra in Mozart's Idomeneo with Herman Malamood in the title role, Claudia Catania as Idamante, Ileana Cotrubas as Ilia, John Alexander as Arbace, and Jeffrey Tate conducting.

She returned to the Met regularly over the next 7 years portraying Countess Almaviva, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, and the title role in Strauss' Arabella.

Some of the other roles she performed on stage were Chrysothemis in Strauss' Elektra, Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare, Desdemona in Verdi's Otello, Elisabetta in Verdi's Don Carlos, Euridice in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Marguerite in Charles Gounod's Faust, Micaela in Bizet's Carmen, Mimi in Puccini's La bohème, Romilda in Handel's Serse, and the title roles in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos and Puccini's Manon Lescaut.