Shortly after her NYP debut, Chookasian was offered a contract with the Metropolitan Opera by Rudolf Bing but turned it down because she was afraid it would take too much time away from her family. In the summer of 1961 she repeated the music of Amelfa Timoferevna for European debut at the Festival dei Due Mondi, again under the baton of Schippers. She also made her European opera debut at the festival under Schippers as Herodias in "Salome". She sang Herodias again just a month later at the Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi and also gave a lauded performance of Mahler's "Kindertotenlieder", accompanied by Charles Wadsworth at the Teatro Caio Melisso that summer. The following November she headed back to Baltimore to sing her first Amneris in Verdi's "Aida".