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. She is known for her creation of roles in operas by Carlisle Floyd, such as the title role in Susannah and Catherine Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights. She was a dedicated song recitalist, who retired from singing in 1984. She was named Boston University's Dean Emerita, College of Fine Arts in 1991. Education and early career 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 pursued graduate studies in vocal performance under Boris Goldovsky at the New England Conservatory. In 1946 she made her professional opera debut with Goldovsky's opera company, the New England Opera Theater, as Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. She took the surname Curtin from her first husband, whom she divorced after nine years. She performed several other roles with the company over the next seven years, including Countess Almaviva in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro (1947). In 1950, Curtin performed in the inaugural year of the Peabody Mason Concerts in Boston. In 1953 she joined the roster of principal sopranos at the New York City Opera (NYCO) at the invitation of Joseph Rosenstock. 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. 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. She sang two roles in operas by Carlisle Floyd with the NYCO that she had previously created in their world premieres: the title role in Susannah (which she sang at Florida State University for its 1955 world premiere) and Catherine Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights (which she sang at the