Joan Carlyle

Joan Carlyle is a Welsh opera singer (born 6 April 1931 Wirral, Cheshire).

After studying singing with Madame Nicklass Kempner, Joan Carlyle auditioned for the Royal Opera House and was put under contract by music director Rafael Kubelík and made her debut in 1955. She became one of the principal English-speaking singers who emerged at Covent Garden in the 1950s and became an established member of the Covent Garden Opera Company. These included sopranos Amy Shuard, Joan Sutherland, Elsie Morison, Marie Collier, and Josephine Veasey; tenors Jon Vickers and Peter Pears; bass Michael Langdon and Geraint Evans

While often being paired with Jon Vickers, conductor and music director Rudolf Kempe was a powerful influence and nurtured her career. It was with Kempe that she had her first successes in the 1958/1959 season as “Sophie” in Luchino Visconti’s production of Der Rosenkavalier, and then as “Micaela” in Carmen.

Carlyle sang many major roles at the Royal Opera House. They included her "Nedda" in Pagliacci which brought her international acclaim in Franco Zeffirelli's controversial production during the 1959/1960 season.

Other roles, which she performed throughout many seasons included “Oscar” in Un ballo in maschera, a performance which Montague Haltrecht, in his biography of the first ROH General Director David Webster, describes as "the young Joan Carlyle makes a pageboy with a delicious vocal glitter"; “Ascanius” in Les Troyens; “Mimi” in Peter Brook’s La bohème which resulted in a BBC Television production of the opera.

In her first recording, she is featured as "The Voice From Heaven" in a Decca release of Verdi's Don Carlo in June/July 1965 with the ROH Orchestra conducted by Solti. Featured singers include Carlo Bergonzi, Renata Tebaldi, Grace Bumbry, Nicolai Ghiaurov, and Martti Talvela.

In Italian opera her successes include “Desdemona” in Verdi's Otello with James McCracken in the 1965/1966 season, and subsequently with Jon Vickers in 1972, where her performance was noted as being “experienced, dignified, and often very touching” by Philip Hope-Wallace in his review in The Guardian in June 1972.

Carlyle was no less at home on the concert platform than in the opera house, she had a concert repertoire which included Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Mozart's Requiem, Verdi's Requiem, Brahms' German Requiem and the Szymanowski Stabat Mater, Poulenc's Gloria, Orf's Carmina Burana and Mahler's Fourth Symphony.

Now retired, she lives in Wales and teaches singing privately. Also, she has taught master classes and workshops at such institutions as the Royal College of Music in London.