Soprano Rise Stevens dies aged 99

US mezzo-soprano Rise Stevens, who sang with the Metropolitan Opera for more than 20 years, has died in New York three months shy of her 100th birthday.

Among her greatest roles was the title character in Carmen in the 1950s, which she sang for 124 performances.

She also had a brief Hollywood film career in the 1940s, starring in Oscar-winning Bing Crosby film Going My Way.

The Met called her "a consummate artist, treasured colleague, and devoted supporter of the company".

Born Rise Steenberg on 11 June 1913, she first began singing at the age of 10 on a radio children's hour in New York.

She received a scholarship to study at the renowned Julliard School and turned down an invitation to audition for the Met in 1935 - instead choosing to continue her training in Europe instead.

The singer made her professional opera debut in Prague, where she first showed her mastery in the role of Carmen, before joining the Met in 1938 on tour in Mignon.

She received the Kennedy Center Honour in 1990, where she was hailed as a singer "who raised the art of opera [in the US] to its highest level".

She is survived by her son, the actor Nicholas Surovy, and a granddaughter.

Surovy said a private memorial had been plan