Joy Clements
Encyclopedia
Joy Clements was an American lyric coloratura soprano who had a substantial opera
and concert career from 1956 through the late 1970s. She notably sang regularly with both the New York City Opera
and the Metropolitan Opera
during the 1960s through the early 1970s. She also traveled regularly for performances with opera companies and orchestras throughout the United States but only appeared in a relatively few number of performances internationally.
, Ohio
, Clements first studied singing at the University of Miami
in Coral Gables, Florida
and, shortly after graduating, made her professional opera debut as Musetta in Puccini's La bohème
with the Opera Guild of Greater Miami
in 1956. She then pursued graduate studies at the Philadelphia Musical Academy
where she studied from 1956-1958. During this time she occasionally appeared in operas with smaller houses in the United States. In 1958 she moved to New York City and began further studies with Marinka Gurewich, whom remained her teacher for many years.
(NYCO) making her debut with the company in April of that year as Monica in Gian Carlo Menotti
's The Medium
with Claramae Turner
in the title role and conductor Werner Torkanowsky
. Over the next ten years, she was frequently heard with that company in such roles as Micaëla in Bizet
's Carmen
, Speranza in L'Orfeo (with conductor Leopold Stokowski
), Despina in Mozart's Così fan tutte
(with conductor Julius Rudel
), Mary Warren in the world premiere of Robert Ward's The Crucible
(with Chester Ludgin
, 1961), Lauretta in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi
, Rose Maurrant in Street Scene, Susanna in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro (with Tatiana Troyanos
as Cherubino), the title role in Floyd
's Susannah
(with Norman Treigle
as the Reverend Blitch), and Yum-Yum in The Mikado
among others.
Clements was first seen at the Metropolitan Opera
on October 23, 1963, as the Countess Ceprano in Giuseppe Verdi
's Rigoletto
with Cornell MacNeil
in the title role, Gianna D'Angelo
as Gilda, Barry Morell
as the Duke of Mantua, and conductor Fausto Cleva
. She performed there for the next 10 consecutive seasons in such roles as Adele in Johann Strauss II
's Die Fledermaus
(with Phyllis Curtin
), Amor in Orfeo ed Euridice
, Giannetta in Donizetti
's L'elisir d'amore
(opposite Mirella Freni
, then Renata Scotto
), Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel (opposite Frederica von Stade
), Lisa in Bellini
's La sonnambula
(with Dame Joan Sutherland
), Musetta, and Oscar in Un ballo in maschera
(with Leontyne Price
, later Montserrat Caballé
and Plácido Domingo
) among others. Her last and 141st performance with the Met was as Marzelline in Beethoven's Fidelio
on June 1, 1972 with Leonie Rysanek
as Leonore, Robert Nagy as Florestan, William Dooley
as Don Pizarro, and John Macurdy
as Rocco.
While working working with the NYCO and the Met during the 1960s and 1970s, Clements also appeared with several opera companies throughout the United States. She sang roles with the Houston Grand Opera
, the Baltimore Opera Company
, the Cincinnati Opera
, the Pittsburgh Opera
, the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company
, the San Diego Opera
, the Minnesota Opera
, the Fort Worth Opera
, the Tulsa Opera
, and Hawaii Opera Theatre
among others. In 1963 she made her first international appearances with Vancouver Opera
and the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv
. In 1972, she returned to the City Opera, again in Susannah. Later the same year, she appeared in Le nozze di Figaro at the Wolf Trap Farm Park, with Treigle, Curtin and Susanne Marsee
in the cast. She also appeared in a number of productions with the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels
during the 1975-1976 season. Among the roles she sang with these companies included Bess in Porgy and Bess
, Gilda in Rigoletto
, Juliette in Roméo et Juliette
, Lucy in The Telephone, the title heroine in Massenet
's Manon
, Marguerite in Faust
, the title role in Flotow's Martha
, Mimi in La Bohème, Olympia (the doll) in Les contes d'Hoffmann
, Pamina in The Magic Flute
, Shemakhan Tsaritsa in The Golden Cockerel
, Violetta in La Traviata
, and many of the roles she portrayed in New York City.
A highlight of her career was the July 28, 1965, Concert Version of Aaron Copland
's The Tender Land
, as part of the French-American Festival, with the New York Philharmonic
. Clements sang the leading role of Laurie Moss, with Turner, Richard Cassilly
, Treigle and Richard Fredricks
also in the cast, which was conducted by the composer. Three days later, Columbia
recorded an abridged version of the opera, at the Manhattan Center
. (In 2000, Sony
released the performance on Compact Disc.) In 1971 Clements made her debut performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra
singing Valencienne in a concert performance of The Merry Widow
.
After retiring from performing in the late 1970s, Clements worked actively as a voice teacher for a number of years. At the age of seventy-three, the soprano succumbed to complications from multiple sclerosis
.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
and concert career from 1956 through the late 1970s. She notably sang regularly with both the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
and the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
during the 1960s through the early 1970s. She also traveled regularly for performances with opera companies and orchestras throughout the United States but only appeared in a relatively few number of performances internationally.
Early life and career
Born in DaytonDayton
Dayton is a city in Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, Ohio, United States.Dayton may also refer to:-United States:*Dayton, Alabama*Dayton, California, in Butte County*Dayton, Lassen County, California*Dayton, Idaho*Dayton, Indiana...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, Clements first studied singing at the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
in Coral Gables, Florida
Coral Gables, Florida
Coral Gables is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, southwest of Downtown Miami, in the United States. The city is home to the University of Miami....
and, shortly after graduating, made her professional opera debut as Musetta in Puccini's La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
with the Opera Guild of Greater Miami
Florida Grand Opera
Florida Grand Opera is an American opera company based in Miami, Florida. FGO was created in 1994 from the consolidation of two opera companies in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale region:...
in 1956. She then pursued graduate studies at the Philadelphia Musical Academy
University of the Arts (Philadelphia)
The University of the Arts is one of the United States' oldest universities dedicated to the arts. Its campus makes up part of the Avenue of the Arts in Center City, Philadelphia...
where she studied from 1956-1958. During this time she occasionally appeared in operas with smaller houses in the United States. In 1958 she moved to New York City and began further studies with Marinka Gurewich, whom remained her teacher for many years.
Later career
In 1959 Clements signed a contract with the New York City OperaNew York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
(NYCO) making her debut with the company in April of that year as Monica in Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular...
's The Medium
The Medium
The Medium is a short two-act dramatic opera with words and music by Gian Carlo Menotti. Commissioned by Columbia University, its first performance was there on 8 May 1946. The opera's first professional production was presented on a double bill with Menotti's The Telephone at the Heckscher...
with Claramae Turner
Claramae Turner
Claramae Turner is an American opera singer. She is perhaps best known for singing You'll Never Walk Alone and some of June Is Bustin' Out all Over in the musical film Carousel, adapted from the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical of the same name.Born in Dinuba, California, she was a contralto...
in the title role and conductor Werner Torkanowsky
Werner Torkanowsky
Werner Torkanowsky was a successful German conductor in both the concert hall and opera house....
. Over the next ten years, she was frequently heard with that company in such roles as Micaëla in Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, Speranza in L'Orfeo (with conductor Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
), Despina in Mozart's Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
(with conductor Julius Rudel
Julius Rudel
Julius Rudel is an American opera and orchestra conductor who emigrated to the United States from Austria at the age of 17 and studied conducting at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. He then forged a 35-year career with the New York City Opera, from 1944 to 1979, and was the Music...
), Mary Warren in the world premiere of Robert Ward's The Crucible
The Crucible (opera)
The Crucible is an English language opera written by Robert Ward based on the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller. It won both the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for Music and the New York Music Critics Circle Citation. The libretto was lightly adapted from Miller's text by Bernard Stambler.Ward received a...
(with Chester Ludgin
Chester Ludgin
-Biography:Chester Ludgin was a native of Brooklyn, New York. He made his professional debut in 1956 with The Experimental Opera Theatre of America , as Baron Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca, conducted by Renato Cellini and directed by Armando Agnini...
, 1961), Lauretta in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico —three one-act operas with...
, Rose Maurrant in Street Scene, Susanna in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro (with Tatiana Troyanos
Tatiana Troyanos
Tatiana Troyanos was an American mezzo-soprano of Greek and German descent.-Early life:...
as Cherubino), the title role in Floyd
Carlisle Floyd
Carlisle Floyd is an American opera composer. The son of a Methodist minister, he based many of his works on themes from the South...
's Susannah
Susannah
Susannah is an opera in two acts by American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote the libretto and music while a member of the piano faculty at Florida State University. Floyd adapted the story from the Apocryphal tale of Susannah and the Elders, though the latter story has a more positive ending...
(with Norman Treigle
Norman Treigle
Norman Treigle was an American operatic bass-baritone, who was acclaimed for his great abilities as a singing-actor, and specialized in roles that evoked villainy and terror....
as the Reverend Blitch), and Yum-Yum in The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
among others.
Clements was first seen at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
on October 23, 1963, as the Countess Ceprano in Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
with Cornell MacNeil
Cornell MacNeil
Cornell MacNeil , was an American operatic baritone known for his exceptional voice and long career with the Metropolitan Opera, which spanned 642 performances in twenty-six roles. F...
in the title role, Gianna D'Angelo
Gianna d'Angelo
Gianna D'Angelo , is an American coloratura soprano, primarily active in the 1950s and 1960s.Born Jane Angelovich in Hartford, Connecticut, she studied first at The Juilliard School in New York City with Giuseppe De Luca...
as Gilda, Barry Morell
Barry Morell
Barry Morell was an American operatic tenor particularly associated with the Italian and French repertoire.He was born in New York City and studied at the Juilliard School with Giuseppe Danise...
as the Duke of Mantua, and conductor Fausto Cleva
Fausto Cleva
Fausto Cleva was an Italian-born American operatic conductor.After studies at the Conservatorio in his native city and Milan, Cleva made his debut conducting La traviata in Carcano, near Milan, before emigrating to the United States in 1920, becoming an American citizen in 1931...
. She performed there for the next 10 consecutive seasons in such roles as Adele in Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
's Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
(with Phyllis Curtin
Phyllis Curtin
Phyllis Curtin is an American classical soprano who had an active career in operas and concerts from the early 1950s through the 1980s. She was known for her creation of new roles such as the title role in the Carlisle Floyd opera Susannah, Catherine Earnshaw in Floyd's Wuthering Heights, and in...
), Amor in Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck based on the myth of Orpheus, set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing...
, Giannetta in Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore is an opera by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. It is a melodramma giocoso in two acts...
(opposite Mirella Freni
Mirella Freni
Mirella Freni, birth name Mirella Fregni, is an Italian opera soprano whose repertoire includes Verdi, Puccini, Mozart and Tchaikovsky...
, then Renata Scotto
Renata Scotto
Renata Scotto is an Italian soprano and opera director.Recognized for her sense of style, musicality and as a remarkable singer-actress, Scotto is considered one of the preeminent singers of her generation, specializing in the bel canto repertoire with excursions into the verismo and Verdi...
), Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel (opposite Frederica von Stade
Frederica von Stade
Frederica von Stade is an American mezzo-soprano. Born in Somerville, New Jersey, she acquired the nickname "Flicka" in her childhood. Von Stade attended the Mannes College of Music in New York City. She made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in 1970 and in 1971 appeared as Cherubino in The...
), Lisa in Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
's La sonnambula
La sonnambula
La sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur.The first...
(with Dame Joan Sutherland
Joan Sutherland
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s....
), Musetta, and Oscar in Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
(with Leontyne Price
Leontyne Price
Mary Violet Leontyne Price is an American soprano. Born and raised in the Deep South, she rose to international acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s, and was one of the first African Americans to become a leading artist at the Metropolitan Opera.One critic characterized Price's voice as "vibrant",...
, later Montserrat Caballé
Montserrat Caballé
Montserrat Caballé is a Spanish operatic soprano. Although she sang a wide variety of roles, she is best known as an exponent of the bel canto repertoire, notably the works of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi....
and Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
) among others. Her last and 141st performance with the Met was as Marzelline in Beethoven's Fidelio
Fidelio
Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...
on June 1, 1972 with Leonie Rysanek
Leonie Rysanek
Leopoldine "Leonie" Rysanek was an Austrian dramatic soprano.-Biography:Rysanek was born in Vienna and made her operatic debut in 1949 in Innsbruck. In 1951 the Bayreuth Festival reopened and the new leader Wieland Wagner asked her to sing Sieglinde...
as Leonore, Robert Nagy as Florestan, William Dooley
William Dooley
William Dooley is an American operatic bass-baritone who has sung with many of the world's greatest opera companies. He began his career in Germany in the late 1950s, ultimately becoming a leading performer at the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 1962-1964...
as Don Pizarro, and John Macurdy
John Macurdy
John Macurdy is an esteemed American operatic bass. Among his teachers was the contralto Elisabeth Wood, who was also the pedagogue of Norman Treigle.- Début in New Orleans :...
as Rocco.
While working working with the NYCO and the Met during the 1960s and 1970s, Clements also appeared with several opera companies throughout the United States. She sang roles with the Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...
, the Baltimore Opera Company
Baltimore Opera Company
The Baltimore Opera Company was an opera company in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A., based at the Baltimore Lyric Opera House. On March 12, 2009, the 58-year-old opera company announced plans to pursue Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation....
, the Cincinnati Opera
Cincinnati Opera
Cincinnati Opera is an American opera company based in Cincinnati, Ohio and the second oldest opera company in the United States .-History:...
, the Pittsburgh Opera
Pittsburgh Opera
Pittsburgh Opera is an American opera company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is one of two opera companies in the city, the other being Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh Opera gives performances in several venues, primarily at the Benedum Center, with other performances at the...
, the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company
Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company
The Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company was an American opera company located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that was active between 1958 and 1974. The company was led by a number of Artistic Directors during its history, beginning with Aurelio Fabiani. Other notable Artistic Directors include Julius...
, the San Diego Opera
San Diego Opera
The San Diego Opera Association is a professional opera company located in the city of San Diego, California and is a member of OPERA America. It was founded in 1950 to present productions by San Francisco Opera in the San Diego area...
, the Minnesota Opera
Minnesota Opera
The Minnesota Opera is a performance organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was founded in 1963 by the Walker Art Center, and is known for premiering such diverse works as Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and Frankenstein by Libby Larsen...
, the Fort Worth Opera
Fort Worth Opera
According to the company, Fort Worth Opera is the oldest, continually performing opera company in the state of Texas and among the oldest in the United States. While originally presenting operas one at a time over a fall/winter season, it changed to a "festival" format in 2007...
, the Tulsa Opera
Tulsa Opera
The Tulsa Opera, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is the 18th oldest opera company in the United States and is ranked among the top 10 regional opera companies in the nation. The company produces three opera productions each season performed at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center...
, and Hawaii Opera Theatre
Hawaii Opera Theatre
The Hawaii Opera Theatre is an opera company located in Honolulu, Hawaii, which became active in 1961. The company typically performs three operas during February and March in Blaisdell Concert Hall...
among others. In 1963 she made her first international appearances with Vancouver Opera
Vancouver Opera
Vancouver Opera is the second largest performing arts organization in British Columbia and the largest opera company in western Canada.It performs in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre accompanied currently by the Vancouver Opera Orchestra, one of two specialized opera orchestras in Canada...
and the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
. In 1972, she returned to the City Opera, again in Susannah. Later the same year, she appeared in Le nozze di Figaro at the Wolf Trap Farm Park, with Treigle, Curtin and Susanne Marsee
Susanne Marsee
Susanne Marsee is an American mezzo-soprano of note. She was one of the New York City Opera's leading mezzo-sopranos from 1970, when she debuted opposite Beverly Sills, Plácido Domingo and Louis Quilico, in Donizetti's Roberto Devereux, with Julius Rudel conducting Tito Capobianco's...
in the cast. She also appeared in a number of productions with the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
during the 1975-1976 season. Among the roles she sang with these companies included Bess in Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward...
, Gilda in Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
, Juliette in Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette is an opéra in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique , Paris on 27 April 1867...
, Lucy in The Telephone, the title heroine in Massenet
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
's Manon
Manon
Manon is an opéra comique in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost...
, Marguerite in Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
, the title role in Flotow's Martha
Martha (opera)
Martha, oder Der Markt zu Richmond is a 'romantic comic' opera in four acts by Friedrich von Flotow, set to a German libretto by Friedrich Wilhelm Riese and based on a story by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges....
, Mimi in La Bohème, Olympia (the doll) in Les contes d'Hoffmann
Les contes d'Hoffmann
Les contes d'Hoffmann is an opéra by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on short stories by E. T. A...
, Pamina in The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
, Shemakhan Tsaritsa in The Golden Cockerel
The Golden Cockerel
The Golden Cockerel is an opera in three acts, with short prologue and even shorter epilogue, by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Its libretto, by Vladimir Belsky, derives from Alexander Pushkin's 1834 poem The Tale of the Golden Cockerel, which in turn is based on two chapters of Tales of the Alhambra by...
, Violetta in La Traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
, and many of the roles she portrayed in New York City.
A highlight of her career was the July 28, 1965, Concert Version of Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
's The Tender Land
The Tender Land
The Tender Land is an opera with music by Aaron Copland and libretto by Horace Everett, a pseudonym for Erik Johns. The opera tells of a farm family in the Midwest of the United States. Copland was inspired to write this opera after viewing the Depression-era photographs of Walker Evans and...
, as part of the French-American Festival, with the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
. Clements sang the leading role of Laurie Moss, with Turner, Richard Cassilly
Richard Cassilly
Richard Cassilly was an American operatic tenor who had a major international opera career between 1954 and 1990...
, Treigle and Richard Fredricks
Richard Fredricks
Richard Fredricks is an American opera singer, and was one of the leading dramatic baritones of both the New York City Opera and the Metropolitan Opera.- New York City Opera :...
also in the cast, which was conducted by the composer. Three days later, Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
recorded an abridged version of the opera, at the Manhattan Center
Manhattan Center
The Manhattan Center building, built in 1906 and located at 311 West 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan, houses Manhattan Center Studios , its Grand Ballroom, and the Hammerstein Ballroom, one of New York City's most renowned performance venues...
. (In 2000, Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
released the performance on Compact Disc.) In 1971 Clements made her debut performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
singing Valencienne in a concert performance of The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro–Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play,...
.
After retiring from performing in the late 1970s, Clements worked actively as a voice teacher for a number of years. At the age of seventy-three, the soprano succumbed to complications from multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...
.