Powers sang in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s, She returned to the United States in 1937, and was a contralto soloist in concerts of
Verdi's Requiem,
Handel's Messiah, She also gave recitals for community groups. In 1947, Italian writer
Lanfranco Rasponi introduced her to Menotti, who was casting the role of the fraudulent psychic in his opera
The Medium. The opera was staged on
Broadway along with another one-act Menotti opera, ''
The Telephone, or L'Amour à trois. Powers was noted for her dramatic performance as the phony psychic, and she repeated the role on live television in 1948 and in an expanded film production directed by Menotti in 1951. In 1950, Robert Wahls of the Daily News'' described Powers as "a first ranking contralto and one of the few singers with an unfailing sense of theatre." Powers appeared in the 1957 Broadway revival of the musical
Carousel, and as the Queen Mother in the original 1960 production of
Becket with
Laurence Olivier and
Anthony Quinn. She toured in Asia and Australia in 1966, performing on radio and television programs. == Personal life ==