The performance which could be described as her major breakthrough, bringing her to the attention of a wider audience, was her interpretation of Ellen Orford in Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes at La Monnaie in Belgium in 1994.
During the next few years, she had huge success in Europe, singing roles from Verdi, Boesmans, Dvořák, Britten and Janáček.
That same year she debuted and sang five performances as Helena in Britten's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Metropolitan Opera.
Her last full operatic role was as Jenufa for Welsh National Opera in 2003 and for this she received, posthumously, the 2004 Royal Philharmonic Society Singer Award.
Its patron is Plácido Domingo, the president is Jonathan Dimbleby and the trustees are Dame Josephine Barstow, Iain Burnside (chair), Pamela Bullock, Neal Davies, Simon Freakley, John Gilhooly and Ian Rosenblatt.