[1] The same year, she won the Kathleen Ferrier Prize for the best contralto at the International Vocal Competition 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands.
Shortly thereafter, she became a regular member of the company of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, appearing in such roles as Lola in Cavalleria rusticana.
She created the role of Thea in Tippett's The Knot Garden (1970)[1] and appeared at the Cologne Opera from 1969 (début as Sesto in La clemenza di Tito).
Her recordings include Parsifal (Armin Jordan), Der Rosenkavalier (Georg Solti), The Marriage of Figaro (Colin Davis), Bach's Mass in B minor (Karl Münchinger), Rossini's Stabat Mater (István Kertész), Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, Mahler's The Song of the Earth, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Des Knaben Wunderhorn (all with Solti), Tristan und Isolde (Leonard Bernstein), and Béatrice et Bénédict (Daniel Barenboim).
In the New Year Honours 1980, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to music.