The following is extracted from Volume I of the 1986 edition of South African Music Encyclopedia (J.P. Malan, ISBN 0 86965 586 8)
BARKER, JOYCE, soprano, born 6 June 1931 (Mooi Rivier, Natal), died 23 May 1992 (Johannesburg)
Joyce Barker's serious training started under Daisy Holmes in Durban at the age of nineteen. She won the Ernest Whitcutt Memorial Cup three years in succession and gained three different bursaries. Assisted by the overseas bursary of the RSM and a special bursary for overseas study awarded by the NSAM (Natal Society for the Advancement of Music), she continued her training for three years in London. In 1956, at the end of this period, she became the first winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Scholarship and left for the Continent where she studied with Maria Hittorff, Paula Köhler and Reinhardt (1956-9), eventually placing herself under the guidance of Borishka Gereb and Mario and Katerina Baziola for voice production, and Edouardo Pedrazolli for Italian opera repertoire (since 1959). During this period of preparation Joyce Barker won a variety of awards, including the Gold Medal of the International Concours de Chant (1959).
Starting with the soprano part in Mendelssohn's Elijah which was performed during the Canterbury Festival in 1954, she has sung with prominent conductors and appeared at Sadler's Wells and Covent Garden in Götterdämmerung and Die Walküre (Wagner), Mefistofele (Boito), and I Lombardi and Nabucco (Verdi). During a season of opera in Ireland she sang in productions of Tales of Hoffmann (Offenbach), Marriage of Figaro (Mozart), and La Boheme (Puccini). Other important appearances during this period include the soprano leads in Mahler's Eighth Symphony, Nielsen's Saul und David and Verdi's Aida.
After an absence of 10 years, during which she had only one short South African tour in 1957-8, she returned to her homeland in 1963. Since then, she has established herself as a leading soprano in this country with a long run of engagements as solo recitalist with all four Regional Councils for the Performing Arts and the leading orchestras. There have been numerous broadcasts and leading soprano roles in works such as Britten's War Requiem, Handel's Messiah, Puccini's Turandot, De Falla's El Amor Brujo, Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, Verdi's Aida, Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer, and Cantatas by Bach.
Joyce Barker died in Johannesburg on 23 May 1992.
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The following is an article written by Julius Eichbaum, and taken from Scenaria magazine (June 1992)
JOYCE BARKER – A TRIBUTE
Throughout her professional career, Joyce Barker, who passed away on Saturday 23 May 1992 after a long illness, made a significant contribution to the growth and development of opera in South Africa, both as a singer on the international operatic stage and, in later years, as a teacher.
Like so many other great divas, Joyce was a controversial figure. A person with strongly held views, she frequently incurred the displeasures of those who did not always share her vision.
In particular, she was often highly critical of the four Performing Arts Councils [in South Africa] over what she perceived as their failure to provide adequate working opportunities for South African singers and for not providing these singers with security of tenure and which, inevitably, led to many of these young singers having to seek work opportunities abroad rather than in their own country.
Of her own students she demanded absolute loyalty and, in return, she was fiercely loyal to them. Opera ruled her life and she had strongly held views regarding the place of the artist in society. In her latter years, as head of the Opera School of the University of the Witwatersrand, she made a major contribution to the raising of the standard of training of young singers. At the time of her death many of her most promising students stand poised on the threshold of their careers and time will undoubtedly still measure the level of success she attained as a teacher of some of our greatest young potential singing talent.
Joyce Barker was born in Mooi Rivier, Natal, on 6 June 1931. Her initial singing training began under Daisy Holmes in Durban at the age of nineteen. She won the Ernest Witcutt Memorial Cup three years in succession and gained three different bursaries. With the assistance of a bursary awarded by the Natal Society for the Advancement of Music she continued her training for a period of three years in London. In 1956, at the end of this period, she became the first recipient of the Kathleen Ferrier Scholarship which enabled her to further her studies in Milan and Vienna under teachers such as Maria Hittorff, Paula Köhler and Reinhardt and, later, with Borishka Gereb and Mario and Katerina Baziola for voice production and, in 1959, Edouardo Pedrazolli for Italian opera repertoire.
She received her first professional engagements from the Welsh National opera singing in Verdi operas (I Lombardi, Aida, Nabucco, Il Trovatore) and in Boito’s Mefistofele.
During her career, Joyce won a variety of awards, including the Gold Medal of the International Concours de Chant (1959).
She appeared regularly on the concert platform and on the operatic stage with several notable conductors. At Covent Garden and at Sadler’s Wells she sang a wide variety of leading soprano roles, including those in Wagner’s Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung, Boito’s Mefistofele, and Verdi’s I Lombardi and Nabucco. In Ireland she sang leading soprano roles in Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann, Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, and Puccini’s La Boheme.
When she made her debut at the New York City Opera, Lincoln Centre, as Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera, Winthrop Sargeant, noted critic of The New Yorker called her “a real discovery… a dramatic soprano of consequence”, whilst Musical America said of her “…she is the real article… a genuine dramatic soprano of remarkable sensitivity and great musical power, sure of her mastery of the Verdian line and possessed of a voice to marvel at…”
After an absence of ten years during which period she only returned home for a brief concert tour in 1957/58, she finally returned to South Africa in 1963 where she quickly established herself as a leading soprano in a wide variety of roles for the newly formed Performing Arts Councils. In addition to the Verdi heroines she had sung overseas, she added Lady Macbeth and Elisabetta (Don Carlo) to her repertoire. She also appeared regularly on the concert platform as soloist with the major South African orchestras, particularly the SABC Orchestra with which she appeared in numerous broadcasts such as Britten’s War Requiem, The Messiah, Turandot, Cavalleria Rusticana, Der Fliegende Holländer, Aida, and De Falla’s El Amor Brujo.
On occasion she returned overseas by invitation to sing a wide variety of roles such as two seasons of Amelia (Un Ballo in Maschera) at the New York City Opera, and Elisabetta (Don Carlo) and Senta (Der Fliegende Holländer) at Sante Fe. In the early 1970s she again appeared as Amelia, this time at Seattle with Richard Tucker. In 1972 she sang Elisabetta at Covent Garden, and later in the same year sang Lady Macbeth at Glyndebourne.
In 1973 she returned briefly to London where she sang in a performance of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony (Symphony of a Thousand) at the Royal Festival Hall.
Joyce Barker was a colourful figure who, in addition to enhancing the artistic reputation of South Africa overseas, imparting her wealth of knowledge and experience to her students and enriching the lives of all who heard her on stage or on the concert platform, also lent lustre to the South African operatic scene as a whole. She will be greatly missed by all who knew her and who valued her enormous contribution to the growth and development of opera in South Africa.
