years at the Met were happy ones: she got on well with the daunting Bing, she was grateful to be coached by Alberta Masiello, Walter Taussig and Jan Behr and she was fond of coworkers like "Rosie, the wardrobe mistress, Jimmy, the make-up artist, Nina, the wig lady from Aberdeen and dear Artie, my buddy on the stage crew, who always told me I looked great." Moreover, the Met was an employer generous enough to allow her to moonlight with other companies. In spring 1971, she gave her first performance with the San Francisco Opera as Sesto in an F. Scott Fitzgerald-inspired production of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, and in the summer, she took part in two productions in Santa Fe: she was Maria in the posthumous premiere of Villa-Lobos's Yerma, and she sang her first Cherubino in a staging of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro that was notable as the US debut of Kiri Te Kanawa. According to a historian of the Santa Fe company, "It was two of the newcomers who left the audience dazzled: Frederica von Stade as Cherubino and Kiri Te Kanawa as the Countess. Everyone knew at once that these were brilliant finds. History has confirmed that first impression." The production was the first of several in which they would work together, and also the start of an enduring friendship. On March 28, 1970, von Stade made her one and only Met appearance as Stéphano in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette as fourth cover for an indisposed Marcia Baldwin. Among the audience was Rolf Liebermann, the director of the State Opera of Hamburg. He enjoyed her performance, and he was impressed by her again when, on another evening at the Met, he heard her as Cherubino on March 11, 1972. About to take charge of the Paris Opera, he was planning to launch his intendancy with a lavishly glamorous production of Figaro at the Royal Opera of Versailles, produced by Giorgio Strehler and conducted by Georg Solti. Would she like to take her Cherubino to France? She consulted with Rudolf Bing's successor, Göran Gentele, who advised her not to renew her contract at the Met but to make the most of what promised to be an extraordinary opportunity: "Zero in on what kind of singer you want to be, and then come back to me". She gave her final performance as a comprimario on June