Obituary, Joan Carlyle (1931-2021)

The British soprano Joan Carlyle, who was a versatile and much-loved house singer at Covent Garden in the middle decades of the twentieth century and sang Jenifer on the Philips studio recording of Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage, has died aged 90.

Carlyle was born in Cheshire in 1931 and studied singing privately with the German soprano Selma Nicklaß-Kempner, making her debut at Covent Garden in 1955 (as Frasquita in Carmen) after being signed by music director Rafael Kubelík. It marked the beginning of a two-decade relationship with the company, which encompassed light lyric roles including Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Woglinde in the Ring Cycle (conducted by Franz Konwitschny in 1959), Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi and Oscar in Un ballo in Maschera as well as full lyric repertoire such as Desdemona in Otello, Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites, Xenia in Boris Godunov, and Strauss’s Arabella. (She was the first British singer to perform the latter role, following encouragement from Lisa della Casa, opposite whom she sang Zdenka in Munich as a young singer). Her farewell appearance at the house was as Freia in Das Rheingold in 1976.

Further afield, Carlyle’s significant engagements included Mozart’s Countess at Glyndebourne, Mimí at La Scala, Zdenka and Sophie in Munich, and Micaëla in Carmen at the Teatro Colón Buenos Aires.

With the notable exception of Nedda on Herbert von Karajan’s 1965 Pagliacci for Deutsche Grammophon, Carlyle made relatively few studio recordings, though a number of her Covent Garden performances were broadcast and subsequently released, including Handel’s Dalila (opposite Jon Vickers as Samson and Joan Sutherland as the Israelitish Woman), Glauce in Cherubini’s Medea (with Vickers as Giasone and Callas in the title-role), and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte under Otto Klemperer in 1962. Her non-operatic recordings include Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with Benjamin Britten, and a disc of Purcell’s Music for the Theatre with Yehudi Menuhin and the Bath Festival Orchestra (now alas no longer in print).

In 1971 Carlyle sang the role of Jenifer on Sir Colin Davis’s studio recording of Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage, opposite Alberto Remedios as Mark; reviewing the set twenty-five years later, Gramophone remarked that ‘Remedios and Carlyle are not simply managing those exuberant hocketings above the stave in their final duet; you would swear that they were enjoying them, and as they do so the image of love as a consuming flame is vividly projected’.

After retiring from performance, Carlyle taught singing from her home studio on the Wales-Shropshire border and in workshops and masterclasses at the Royal College of Music. Her death was announced on 5th November; in a statement responding to the news, Covent Garden’s Director of Opera Oliver Mears paid tribute to ‘her beautiful, inimitable vocal style and always strongly characterised acting performances’.

Joan Carlyle - a selected discography