Opera Singer. A coloratura soprano who later became a distinguished voice teacher, she shall be remembered for her career on many of the world's major stages. Raised in New York City, she graduated from Barnard College, studied voice privately, made her 1964 professional bow at Chattanooga as the doll Olympia in Jacques Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffmann", and the following year bowed with the New York City Opera as Donna Elvira from Mozart's "Don Giovanni". With City Opera she sang a number of roles including Mme. Lidone of Poulenc's "Dialogues of the Carmelites", Giselda from Verdi's seldom-heard " Lombardi", Donna Anna in "Don Giovanni", Marguerite from Giacomo Meyerbeer's "Les Huguenots", Fata Morgana of Prokofiev's "The Love for Three Oranges", and her signature piece, which she sang around 250 times, The Queen of the Night from Mozart's "The Magic Flute". Rita first appeared at La Scala Milano in 1970 as the title character in Richard Strauss' "Arabella", made her September 22, 1973 Metropolitan Opera bow as The Queen of the Night, then over the next 10 seasons appeared there a total of 71 times, her other roles including several of Verdi's girls, Violetta in "La Traviata", Oscar of "Un Ballo in Maschera", and the doomed Gilda from "Rigoletto", as well as the title lead of Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor", Musetta in Puccini's "La Boheme", and Berthe of Meyerbeer's "Le Prophete". On a memorable occasion in January of 1976 she filled-in for an indisposed Beverly Sills as Pamira in a Met presentation of Rossini's "The Siege of Corinth", on March 22, 1979, under the baton of Julius Rudel, sang the title lead in the City Opera world premiere of Dominick Argento's "Miss Havisham's Fire", a work drawn from Dickens' "Great Expectations", and later in 1979 appeared in Peter Schat's "Houdini, A Circus Opera" at the Aspen Music Festival. A busy concert and recital artist, she was heard in numerous operatic venues including the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the San Francisco Opera, Munich's Bavarian State Opera, the Vienna State Opera, and the Salzburg Festival, her additional roles including the title leads of Alban Berg's "Lulu" (probably her only flop) and Massenet's "Manon", as well as Adina from Donizetti's "L'Elisir d'Amore". Following retirement she was a noted competition judge, master class presenter, and voice teacher, holding a professorship at Rochester's Eastman School of Music from 1989 until her death while maintaining a private studio in New York City and teaching at the Manhattan School of Music. Rita died after a short battle with pancreatic cancer leaving a small but significant recorded legacy consisting of a couple of recital discs, some archived Met broadcasts and live 'pirates', and a 1971 complete preservation of "Les Huguenots" which is considered by some critics to be definitive.