She appeared in the first telecast from the Met in 1977, as Mimi in Puccini's La bohème, alongside Luciano Pavarotti and conducted by James Levine.

She later expanded her repertoire by roles such as the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, Elle in Poulenc's La voix humaine, and Madame Flora in Menotti's The Medium.

During World War II, her mother took her and her sister to the nearby mountains, taking sewing jobs from the fascists, the Nazis, and the Americans.

[2] She appeared at the Rome Opera in 1955 as Sophie in Massenet's Werther, and at La Fenice in Venice in 1956 as Traviata, and as Micaela in Bizet's Carmen.

She sang Bellini's Zaira and La straniera, Donizetti's Maria di Rohan, in Meyerbeer's Robert le diable, and in other repertoire rarities.

In 1964 she performed with La Scala at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the first opera company tour to the Soviet Union during the Cold War years.

In 1967 she appeared at La Scala as Giulietta in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi and as Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, in 1969 as Gluck's Euridice, and in 1970 as Elena in Verdi's I vespri siciliani.

Wednesday night, Miss Scotto arrived with all three, and if she went her own way in portraying Cio-Cio-San-that is, outside the proscribed bounds of the effective Aoyama production-hardly anyone cared.

Moving into the heavier Verdi repertoire in the 1970s, she appeared as Elisabetta in Don Carlo, Luisa Miller, Lady Macbeth, Leonora in Il trovatore, and in the Requiem, all conducted by James Levine.

"[2] At the performance of Bellini’s Norma which opened the Met's 1981/1982 season, fans of Maria Callas yelled negative remarks and booed Scotto from the moment she set foot on the stage.

"[2] In the late part of her career, Scotto took on the roles of Giordano's Fedora (Barcelona, 1988), Charlotte in Massenet's Werther, the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss (Charleston Spoleto Festival, 1995 and Catania), Kundry in Wagner's Parsifal (Schwerin, 1995),[9] Elle in Poulenc's La voix humaine (Maggio Musicale Fiorentino 1993, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, and Liceu, Barcelona, 1996),[9] Madame Flora in Menotti's The Medium (Torino, 1999), and Klytemnestra in Elektra by Richard Strauss (Baltimore, 2000 and Sevilla, 2002).

[9] Scotto taught voice in Italy and the United States, along with academic posts at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and the Juilliard School in New York City.

[5][11][12] The Metropolitan Opera remembered after her death: Her 1965 Met debut in the title role of Madama Butterfly revealed her to be an extraordinarily compelling and complete artist, with the ability to create a deeply moving character through magnetic stage presence, expressive musical phrasing, and unfailingly dramatic delivery of the Italian text.