Joy Davidson

Joy Davidson (born August 18, 1937, Fort Collins, Colorado) is an American operatic mezzo-soprano, actress, and pedagogue. She has performed internationally in many of the world's great opera houses.

A native of Fort Collins, Colorado, Davidson is a graduate of Fort Collins High School. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Occidental College in 1959 where she was a voice student of Howard S. Swan. She worked briefly as an elementary school music teacher before pursuing graduate studies in opera at Florida State University with Elena Nikolaidi. She attended the UCLA Summer Opera Program where she was a student of Jan Popper. She later studied with Irma McDaniels and Daniel Harris in Miami.

Davidson made her professional opera debut in 1965 in the title role of Rossini's La Cenerentola with the Miami Opera. That same year she was engaged by the Metropolitan Opera National Company with whom she toured the United States in performances for the next two years. Among the roles she portrayed with the company was the title role in Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia.

In 1967 Davidson won first prize in the Sofia International Opera Singers Competition. In 1969 she made her debut at the New York City Opera as Kontschakowna in Borodin's Prince Igor and made her first appearance at the San Francisco Opera as The Secretary in Menotti's The Consul. That same year she portrayed Sister Jeanne in the United States premiere of The Devils of Loudun at the Santa Fe Opera. In 1970 she returned to San Francisco to portray the title heroine in Bizet's Carmen (with Plácido Domingo), and appeared at Philharmonic Hall as the First Angel in Mendelssohn's Elijah with the New York Philharmonic under conductor Lukas Foss.

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