Amara made her Metropolitan Opera debut as the "Voice from Heaven" in Verdi's Don Carlos, the opening night of Sir Rudolf Bing's inaugural season as general manager, on November 6, 1950.

Appearing regularly as Micaëla in Carmen,[1] Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, and Tatiana in Eugene Onegin,[1] Antonia in Les contes d'Hoffmann, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Nedda in Pagliacci, Mimi in La bohème, her repertoire also included Leonora in Il trovatore and Aida.

Amara also performed in Europe, Asia, and South America, including at Glyndebourne (1954–55, 1957–58), the Edinburgh Festival (1954), the Vienna State Opera (1960), Russia (1965), and China (1983.)

Made in 1964–65, the recording also features Maureen Forrester (mezzo-soprano), Richard Tucker (tenor), George London (bass), and the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy.

After retiring, Amara became the artistic director of the New Jersey Association of Verismo and taught master classes in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

[1] However, at the end of her life, when suffering from dementia, she lived with her daughter in Queens, where she died from a respiratory infection and heart failure on September 6, 2024, at the age of 99.