Joyce Castle (born Lillian Joyce Malicky, on January 17, 1939, in Beaumont, Texas) is an American mezzo-soprano who has had an active opera career for the last four decades. She earned degrees in music from The University of Kansas and the Eastman School of Music. She made her professional opera debut in 1970 at the San Francisco Opera as Siebel in Charles Gounod's Faust. In 1984 she became the first woman to portray Mrs. Lovett in an operatic staged production of Sweeney Todd at the Houston Grand Opera. She spent seven years performing with opera companies in France during the 1970s, after which her career has mainly been spent performing with opera companies throughout the United States. She has sung leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera for nine seasons and has also appeared frequentl