Joan Carlyle

Joan Carlyle (born 6 April 1931) is an English opera singer. She was born in Upton on the Wirral, Cheshire. After auditioning for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, she was put under contract by the musical director Rafael Kubelík and made her debut in 1955, appearing also under him in The Magic Flute in 1956.

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.

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

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.