Davy met composer and conductor Victor de Sabata when the "Porgy and Bess" tour reached La Scala in Milan in 1955. Impressed with the young singer, he offered her the title role in Giuseppe Verdi's "Aida" for a return engagement at that house. Unfortunately, political upheaval in Italy led to the cancelation of her scheduled performance at the opera house, and her first appearance as Aida ended up being at the Opéra de Nice in 1957. Later that year she performed that role in concert with the New York Philharmonic at Lewisohn Stadium in New York with Barry Morell as Radamès and Elena Nikolaidi as Amneris. Aida was also her calling card at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna and the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb in 1968.