By 1970, Cortez was being considered by virtually every major opera house, but for a Romanian artist, getting out of the country was a major challenge, often insurmountable. The lack of a passport and endless difficulties with the authorities were obstacles not only for her, but for every Romanian performer who hoped for an international career. Many contracts were annulled because of this issue. In the winter of 1970, Viorica Cortez was in Naples for a series of performances of
Samson et Dalila opposite Mario del Monaco. She did not return to Romania, deciding to continue her artistic destiny abroad and for quite some time was separated from her family members and friends. Cortez's American debut occurred in 1970. She performed in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and New York, where she first appeared alongside Martina Arroyo in Verdi's
Messa da Requiem in Carnegie Hall. Both La Scala and the Metropolitan scheduled her, the first in
Samson et Dalila, the other in
Carmen. In Milan, succeeding Shirley Verrett's Dalila, Cortez was asked by the opera management and conductor
Georges Prêtre to consider an extra performance, an exceptional decision of the theatre following the enormous success of her first appearance with the house. In New York, Richard Tucker, her Don Jose for the debut night, hailed her as one of the most attractive and convincing Carmens he had ever sung with. From then on, Cortez's career included the major opera houses of the world. Claudio Abbado invited her for the Verdi Requiem at La Scala, along with
Plácido Domingo and
Nicolai Ghiaurov. Ghiaurov was her partner for Massenet's freshly revived opera
Don Quichotte, both in Paris and Chicago, the Parisian
mise en scène being assigned to
Peter Ustinov. In Chicago, Cortez was a commanding and electrifying Elisabetta in
Maria Stuarda opposite
Montserrat Caballé (1973). The friendship and mutual respect they developed represented a milestone in Cortez's career. For
Norma and
Maria Stuarda, as well as for
Don Carlo and
Il Trovatore, they were scheduled together in Lisbon, Naples, Nice, Vienna, Cologne, Madrid and La Scala (
Norma, 1974) and at the Met (
Il Trovatore, 1973). In 1972, Cortez sang Amneris at the Arena di Verona opposite the Radames of
Franco Corelli. She became a favourite of the audience there. In 1975, having become a French citizen, she returned to her long-missed Bucharest for a recital at the Atheneum. Cortez felt at home both in the Italian and French repertoire. She portrayed a rapturous Dalila (Teatro Sao Carlos, Lisbon - 1975, Grand Opera, Paris - 1978), a powerful, intense Azucena (Metropolitan, New York - 1973, 1977, 1978, Grand Opera, Paris - 1975, Staatsoper, Vienna - 1973, 1974, 1976, Teatro alla Scala, Milan - 1978), a fragile Charlotte in Massenet's
Werther, almost always with
Alfredo Kraus, who named her his "absolute favourite Charlotte", a dramatic Eboli, notably in Vienna, Bordeaux, Lisbon, Bilbao and for the bicentennial of La Scala - 1978, a delicate and interiorised Marguerite in Berlioz's
La Damnation de Faust (Paris, Verona), and a sovereign and shining Amneris (La Scala, Milan - 1973, Arena di Verona - 1977, Metropolitan, New York - 1979). Her repertory widened every year. She was a shockingly tempestuous Klitemnestra in Richard Strauss'
Elektra opposite Birgit Nilsson (Rome, 1971). She felt no boundaries or shyness in jumping from one composer to another, mixing Monteverdi (''L'Incoronazione di Poppea
, Naples, 1976) with Giordano (Fedora
, Bologna, 1977), Stravinsky (Oedipus Rex
, La Scala, Milan, 1972, 1973, 1980) Mussorgsky (Boris Godunov
, Paris, 1980), Rossini (Tancredi
, Martina Franca, 1976) and Lalo (Le Roi d'Ys'', Nancy, 1979). == 1980s ==