Joyce Blackham
Yorkshire-born mezzo-soprano renowned for her Carmen
JOYCE BLACKHAM, who has died aged 84, was a mezzo-soprano best known for her lush and sensual portrayal of the title role in Carmen, which she sang in opera houses as far apart as London, Bulgaria and New Zealand; her striking portrayal of Bizet’s heroine reportedly sent black-market seat prices soaring to record levels in Auckland.
Blessed with dark curly tresses, come-hither eyes and the buoyant spirits that befitted the story’s gipsy cigarette girl, Joyce Blackham enthralled audiences, critics and fellow performers alike. The conductor Charles Mackerras recalled her as a “sexy creature”, while others spoke of her as being “excitingly near the mark”, voluptuous and with a thrilling, rich chest voice.
Joyce Elizabeth Blackham was born at Rotherham on New Year’s Day 1934, the daughter of Albert Blackham, a steelworker in nearby Sheffield, and his wife Sarah. She took piano lessons from the age of five “because my parents were interested in that sort of thing” and was educated at Rotherham Grammar School for Girls.
Aged 15, Joyce won a music competition at Butlin’s, Skegness, singing Land of Hope and Glory, and two years later topped a talent competition at Bridlington. Back home, the local community raised money for her to study in London, although she also supported herself by working at Boots on the make-up counter.
At the Guildhall School of Music she attracted attention as Dorabella in Così fan tutte, with one critic noting “the sensuous quality of her voice, her musicianship and her assurance as an actor, as well as her delightful stage presence”.
Her professional debut came in 1955 as an “unusually lively and pleasing” Olga in Eugene Onegin for Sadler’s Wells Opera, and she remained with the company until 1974, singing roles such as Flora in La traviata and Rose in The Barber of Seville. In The Mines of Sulphur (1965), a gothic-romance opera by Richard Rodney Bennett, she was “bare of foot and, for the most part, of bosom”.
Joyce Blackham also sang with Welsh National Opera and the Royal Opera, making her Covent Garden debut in 1958 as Esmeralda in The Bartered Bride, while American audiences heard her magnificent Carmen in 1965 with Fort Worth Opera in Texas when Plácido Domingo was her Don José. She and Domingo reprised their roles for New York City Opera the following year and in 1970 she sang the part for Civic Opera of the Palm Beaches, Florida, this time with Robert Merrill.
In 1967 she was due to appear with Harry Secombe in the musical The Four Musketeers at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, with a guaranteed two-year run, but she fell out with the director. “I finally issued an ultimatum,” she recalled. “Either stop mucking about with my part and do it as it was written or I’ll leave.” She withdrew on the day of the dress rehearsal, vowing never to touch a musical again.
By the early 1980s Joyce Blackham’s career was winding down and she lived for a time in Spain before moving to Sidmouth. In retirement she saw the world from cruise ships, although few of her fellow passengers had any idea of her past musical glories.
In 1955 she married the baritone Peter Glossop, also from Yorkshire, and a principal at Sadler’s Wells Opera. Their daughter died a few hours after birth and another child was stillborn. The marriage was dissolved in 1977 when Glossop ran off with a young ballerina, although Joyce Blackham cared for him in the years before his death in 2008. Her second marriage, to Burt Kyle, was dissolved and her third husband, Tony Deacon, predeceased her.
Latterly her partner was Lieutenant-commander Tim Derrick, whom she met on the seafront at Sidmouth; he died in 2015.
Joyce Blackham, born January 1 1934, died June 4 2018