Joan Carlyle

Joan Carlyle (6 April 1931 – 31 October 2021) was a Welsh operatic soprano singer. She was born in Upton on the Wirral, Cheshire. and as Ascagne in Les Troyens.

She became one of the principal English-speaking singers who emerged at Covent Garden in the 1950s becoming an established member of the Covent Garden Opera Company. The conductor Rudolf Kempe was a powerful influence and nurtured her career. It was with him that she had her first successes in the 1958–59 season as Sophie in Luchino Visconti's production of Der Rosenkavalier, and then as Micaela in Carmen.

Under a series of distinguished conductors, Carlyle sang throughout Europe and beyond, making her US debut in March 1963 in the Brahms's A German Requiem with Erich Leinsdorf.

Covent Garden years Carlyle emerged in the 1950s along with other singers who also became established members of the Covent Garden company such as sopranos Amy Shuard, Joan Sutherland, Elsie Morison, Marie Collier, and Josephine Veasey; tenors Jon Vickers and Peter Pears; and basses Michael Langdon and Geraint Evans, but it was with Jon Vickers that she was often paired.

In 1959 she sang the role of Glauce in Cherubini's Medea with Maria Callas in the title role. Many major roles followed at Covent Garden, including her Nedda in Pagliacci which brought her international acclaim in Franco Zeffirelli's controversial production during the 1959/1960 season. The critic Alan Blyth considered this one of her best roles.

1962 saw her Pamina in The Magic Flute conducted by Otto Klemperer; her first Countess in Le nozze di Figaro was under Solti, with Tito Gobbi as the Count. In another opera conducted by Solti in 1967, Carlyle sang the title role in Richard Strauss' Arabella. She was the first British singer to perform this role, which she sang opposite Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

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 administrator David Webster, describes as "the young Joan Carlyle makes a pageboy with a delicious vocal glitter"; Ascanius in Les Troyens; and Mimi in Peter Brook's staging of La bohème which resulted in a BBC Television production of the opera. At Glyndebourne in 1965 she played the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro. Her last Covent Garden performance was in 1976 as Freia in Das Rheingold.