Joy Clements

[2] In 1959 Clements signed a contract with the New York City Opera (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.

[3] 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.