Elinor Ross, a soprano who made a dramatic Metropolitan Opera debut in 1970 as a last-minute replacement in the title role of “Turandot,” but whose career was over by the end of the decade, cut short by an illness that paralyzed her facial muscles, died on March 6 in Manhattan. She was 93.

Her son, Ross Lewis, said the cause was renal failure.

Ms. Ross, who began singing professionally in the late 1950s, was best known in regional houses and overseas until June 6, 1970, when she stepped in at the Met for Birgit Nilsson, who was sidelined by a virus.

“There are few sopranos in the world who could or would choose the title role of Puccini’s ‘Turandot’ for a Metropolitan Opera debut,” Allen Hughes wrote in The New York Times, “but Elinor Ross made her first appearance with the company on Saturday night in the spectacular part (with its triply spectacular costume) and managed the feat pretty well.”

She’d had just two days of rehearsal in a practice room, without the heavy costume, which had an elaborate headdress. Her entrance was on a staircase she had never trod.