Phyllis Curtin (née Smith; December 3, 1921 – June 5, 2016) was an American soprano and academic teacher who had an active career in operas and concerts from the early 1950s through the 1980s.

[1] Phyllis Smith was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia, and studied singing with Olga Averino at Wellesley College where she earned a bachelor's degree in Political Science.

She made her debut with the company on October 22, 1953, portraying three roles (Fräulein Bürstner, Frau Grubach, and Leni) in the U.S. premiere of Einem's The Trial.

[5] She remained committed to the NYCO through 1960, where her roles included Alice Ford in Verdi's Falstaff, Antonia in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann, Countess Almaviva, Cressida in Troilus and Cressida, Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Frau Fluth in Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor, Katharina in Vittorio Giannini's The Taming of the Shrew, Konstanze in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Mélisande in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, Norina in Donizetti's Don Pasquale, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss, and the title roles in Verdi's La traviata and in Salome by Richard Strauss.

[1] In 1956 she toured the U.S. with the NBC Opera Company as Countess Almaviva with Walter Cassel as the Count, Adelaide Bishop as Sussana, and Frances Bible as Cherubino.

In 1968 she appeared as Mimì in Puccini's La Bohème at the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company with Richard Tucker as Rodolfo and Ron Bottcher as Marcello.

Other guest appearances included performances at the Scottish Opera (as Marguerite in Gounod's Faust and Ellen Orford in Britten's Peter Grimes) at La Scala.

Curtin made her Metropolitan Opera (Met) debut on November 4, 1961, as Fiordiligi to the Ferrando of George Shirley, Dorabella of Rosalind Elias, Guglielmo of Theodor Uppman, Despina of Roberta Peters, and Don Alfonso of Frank Guarrera.

She returned frequently as a guest artist at the Met, appearing in such roles as Alice Ford, Countess Almaviva, Donna Anna, Ellen Orford, Eva in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Rosalinde, Salome, and Violetta.

Her last Met appearance was on July 6, 1973, in the title role of Puccini's Tosca with Enrico Di Giuseppe as Cavaradossi and Ignace Strasfogel conducting.

In April 1954 Life Magazine devoted three pages to pictures of her, describing her "long-limbed, lush-voiced and intense" account of the Dance of the Seven Veils in Strauss's Salome.