Eun Sun Kim Makes San Francisco Opera Debut of "Astonishing Vibrancy and Assurance"

June 28, 2019

Photo by Cory Weaver

Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim has earned widespread critical acclaim for her house debut at San Francisco Opera, where she leads a Rusalka cast that includes Rachel Willis-Sorensen, Jamie Barton, Brandon Jovanovich, and Kristinn Sigmundsson.

Read reviews:

“Magnificent musical values on display from top to bottom. Presiding over everything, in a company debut of astonishing vibrancy and assurance, was conductor Eun Sun Kim, who drew glorious playing from the Opera Orchestra and paced every scene freely but precisely.”

San Francisco Chronicle

“In her San Francisco Opera debut, conductor Eun Sun Kim assuredly drew splendid playing from an ensemble that proved its versatility (the instrumentalists spent the prior night playing Baroque). She brought forward the music’s visceral quality laying deep under the folkloric connotations. More, she succeeded to balance Wagnerian-like statements with subtle invocations of Mendelssohnian delicacy.”
Bachtrack

“A detailed and beautifully paced interpretation of the lovely score. Dvorak must have been thinking of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" for his passionate final duet between the Prince and Rusalka, and he was probably aiming for some Verdian flavor with scenes between the water nymph and her Water Goblin dad (think "Rigoletto") and appearances by the hideous witch Jezibaba ("Il Trovatore"). Regardless of theatrical influences, Eun Sun Kim underscored [Dvorak’s] unmistakable musical sound with sympathetic support from the orchestra.”

Bay Area Reporter

“A gripping company debut, bringing out the Czech pulse and phrasing under a shiny surface of supple orchestral playing. The Korean-born artist maintained impeccable balances with all the singers and kept the score unfolding with a sense of inevitability. She wrangled the big cast into a cohesive, propulsive engine.”

Seen and Heard International

“Kim draws warm incisive playing from the orchestra, adding to the dramatic impact and underpinning the moving final scene…”

Classical Voice

“Lush, accessible, frequently moving. The dependable San Francisco Opera orchestra, conducted by Eun Sun Kim in her company debut, outdoes itself, especially as the opera soars to its demonic climax.”
Theatrius

“Kim made a strong impression with her company debut, leading a performance that was powerful and passionate. She coaxed glorious playing from the Orchestra…an auspicious debut for her, and the audience responded enthusiastically.”

Parterre Box

“Kim’s shimmering, beautifully contoured performance of the Dvorak’s melody-immersed operatic masterpiece, elicited a brilliant response from the San Francisco Opera Orchestra.”

Opera Warhorses

“Kim drove the emotional flow, pulling the vibrant Dvorak colors from the triple winds of the opera orchestra, urging full-throated force from its strings.”

Opera Today

“Musically and vocally, too, it is carried off with highly impressive results. Within Dvořák’s lush orchestration there’s a whiff of Wagner, a sense of Strauss and a touch of Tchaikovsky among his influences and conductor Eun Sun Kim, in her company debut, captures the darkness, the gossamer-like, the bombastic and mystery of the score with elan.”

OperaChaser

“In this capacious and captivating production at the War Memorial Opera House, everything from the highly characterized singing to…the lush yet keenly honed reading of the score, under conductor Eun Sun Kim’s baton in her fine company debut, registers in a vividly visceral, emotionally penetrating way. Nothing feels or sounds gratuitous; just about everything, across three-and-a-half musically and dramatically absorbing hours, seems essential. The music has a cumulative force, culminating in a duet for Rusalka and the Prince of such excruciating tenderness and bone-deep truth that the Liebestod of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde can’t help but come to mind. Everything has amplitude and authority… Rusalka, the last and clearly best of the company’s three summer productions, is a triumph in all ways. This wonderfully wrought work, last seen her 24 years ago, has returned to the San Francisco Opera stage in a stirring, disturbing, exhilarating way, sure to etch itself in the audience’s memory.”

San Francisco Classical Voice

Russell Thomas 'Imbues Otello with Vocal and Psychological Nuance'

May 5, 2019

Photo by Michael Cooper

American tenor Russell Thomas has made his highly anticipated staged role debut as the title character in Verdi’s Otello, earning critical acclaim across North America.

Thomas stars alongside soprano Tamara Wilson as Desdemona and baritone Gerald Finley as Iago, in a new David Alden production at Canadian Opera Company. Performances run through May 21, with tickets available via COC.

Read reviews:

“A rare black tenor to be cast in the part, Russell Thomas imbues Otello with vocal and psychological nuance. Otello requires a dramatic tenor with a wide vocal range, the power to cut through heavy orchestration, and the skill to make the long, declamatory passages sing — ideally, a voice that marries Wagnerian stamina and Italianate beauty. Russell Thomas is one of them. His assured vocalism and theatrical acuity were central to the success of the Canadian Opera Company’s chilling new production. This was an insightfully psychological portrayal…”

Wall Street Journal

“Thomas brings [Otello] to life on stage in the most compelling and authentic way. While there are many stunning and familiar arias in this magnificent opera, some of the most captivating and interesting moments lie in the duets.”
Mooney on Theatre

“A subtle and exceptionally nuanced performance; his voice explored Otello from a profoundly internal space.”

Plays to See

“Thomas’s performance is carefully thought out, his authority established from his clarion-call opening notes onward, his jealous fury building gradually and inevitably… Make no mistake. It’s in the music that this Otello triumphs.”

Now Toronto

“Never has his tenor sounded so heroic and Italianate nor has his acting shown such intensity as it does in this role.”
Stage Door Review

“Anchored by a mesmerizing performance by Thomas in the title role, the production takes you on a journey of true love, revenge, and morality. Thomas’ performance oozes sophistication and considering the vocal challenges that a production like Otello throws at a performer, Thomas pulls it off with ease as he brings the title character to life with steadfast devotion, strong vocal delivery, and exceptional stage presence. A tour-de-force experience with exceptionally authentic performances by Thomas…”

Aesthetic Magazine

“Inhabiting Otello’s namesake principal, Russell Thomas crafts a tense, tortured Moor… His well constructed, fine-tuned instrument with its shiny array of top notes is more than sufficiently assertive. Thomas electrifies in a moving, superbly proportioned rendition of the composer’s supercharged lament.”

Opera Going Toronto

Moby-Dick Is 'Masterfully Led' by Lidiya Yankovskaya

April 30, 2019

Photo by Michael Brosilow

Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya has just led the Chicago premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s operatic adaptation of Melville’s epic novel Moby-Dick. The production, acknowledged by Chicago Reader as “a major undertaking for Chicago Opera Theater and one of its best ever,” has earned particular acclaim for Yankovskaya’s leadership in the pit.

Read reviews:

“But the ultimate star here was the production itself, a tour de force for Chicago Opera Theater with many moving parts. Conductor and COT music director Lidiya Yankovskaya brought forth brilliantly colored accompaniment from the orchestra, where the most exciting musical action takes place. The chorus, too, proved resplendent, onstage and off.”
Chicago Tribune

“…An ideal cast who can act their roles with impressive style, as well as sing them with authority and exemplary diction. Lidiya Yankovskaya, COT’s young and exceptionally talented music director, elicits all the feverish beauty of the score from her superb orchestra, and from the male chorus that is more than three dozen strong.”
WTTW News

“A defining success in the history of the company... Perhaps most memorable is a gentle, affecting meditation on the sea as night slowly changes to morning. This section and the rest of the score are handsomely realized by the Chicago Opera Theater’s pit orchestra, masterfully led by music director Lidiya Yankovskaya, who never allows the momentum to flag.”
Chicago Sun-Times

“A winning operatic experience with stimulating music and touching portrayals, all against the backdrop of an epic sea story. COT has assembled a large cast and a good-sized orchestra who all contribute to an astonishing night at the opera. Lidiya Yankovskaya, COT’s music director, got things off to a propitious start on opening night at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance on Thursday, with orchestral sound that began quietly, establishing a mood of eeriness and hinting at the adventure and danger to come. All night long the sound from the pit was glorious, from playful allurings to leviathanic threats.”
Hyde Park Herald

“A powerful experience, well worth chasing down. COT music director Lidiya Yankovskaya conducts a 60-piece orchestra. This co-production with four other opera companies is a major undertaking for COT and one of its best ever.”
Chicago Reader

“Highly recommended – it’s rare to hear a more hauntingly beautiful and stylistically varied score… Chicago Opera Theater’s Music Director Lidiya Yankovskaya masterfully conducted the 60-member orchestra through Heggie’s score.”
Around The Town Chicago

“The enthralling immediacy of story and song is musical mastery that turns both this massed ensemble and superb orchestra, conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya, into forces of nature in their own right. COT’s labor of love abounds in thinking thrills, unforgettable stage tableaux, and monumental energy that always rises to Melville’s occasions.”
Stage and Cinema

“Lidiya Yankovskaya built on her strong debut last November leading Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta. She kept the momentum surging through the two long acts, balancing the principals, chorus and large orchestra with consummate skill and putting across all of the ingenuity, audacity and startling beauty of Heggie’s remarkable score.”
Chicago Classical Review

“Moby Dick was masterfully conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya. Under her baton the 60 piece orchestra played beautifully with a sumptuous sound. The positive influence of Ms. Yankovskaya’s direction continues to impress in a business which is highly competitive for better orchestra players. The commitment to excellence from COT is to be commended.”
Buzz Center Stage

“Heggie opens the score with an almost quiet contemplation of the sea, which you too might admire even more when the orchestra under Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya pours out turbulent storms. Every once in a while there is a fleeting phrase in the score with almost déjà vu familiarity of an aria Pavarotti might have sung, or even a show tune, but before this writer could register the when/where, it would be washed away by other musical currents rising in a new wave… It is the muscular male chorus – sometimes center stage and sometimes off stage—that perhaps most impresses.  If the Soviet Army Chorus were unleashed to sing a wider range of melodies that weren’t all about military conquest and glory, one imagines they might sound just like this.”
Picture This Post

“Chicago Opera Theater music director Lidiya Yankovskaya led a first-class cast, a 60-piece orchestra, and an agile 38-member chorus in the service of this demanding opera. “Moby-Dick” doesn’t sound Italian at all, but it loves singers the way Verdi operas do, and Yankovskaya conveyed its Verdi-like sense of tension and forward motion, knowing where to dwell and reflect, how long to cower, when to pounce, how to switch gears and get on with it.”
Chicago on The Aisle

Lidiya Yankovskaya Delivers 'Strong WNO Debut'

January 16, 2019

Photo by Scott Suchman

Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya has just made her house debut at Washington National Opera, leading the world premiere of Kamala Sankaram’s Taking Up Serpents, an opera set in the American South that explores religious traditions and family.

Read reviews:

“Russian conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya made a strong WNO debut at the podium, skillfully bringing together the disparate sounds in the pit.”
Washington Classical Review

“The most interesting parts were Sankaram’s atmospheric orchestrations, brought out by Lidiya Yankovskaya in the pit.”
The Washington Post

“Her orchestrations, performed by a fully game Washington National Orchestra under the direction of Lidiya Yankovskaya in her WNO debut, emphasize the unease of Kayla's reluctant return home to her estranged family. The orchestra not only creates unusual noises with bassoons minus the mouthpieces, but there is also what may be the first use in opera of the children's toy called the whirly tube, those ribbed plastic hoses that emit an otherworldly sound when swung around.”
Broadway World

“Sankaram also has integrated some curious contemporary instrumentation for a small orchestra, including electric and acoustic guitar, a drum set, water phone, and, most delicious of all, “whirly tubes” with their mysterious sound and snakelike waving. Lidiya Yankovskaya does a terrific job as a conductor of this score bringing out the many colors and styles of music with her thirteen musicians who prove game to the challenge.”
DC Theatre Scene

“Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya ably shaped the score: Its spare orchestration is built on string drones and slithering glissandos and colored with punchy special effects, such as the whirly tubes that make a soft, creepy hooting sound, associated with Kayla’s memories, and the glockenspiel that plays as her father brands her as a sinful daughter of Eve and that later accompanies her triumphant assertion, ‘I am the light.’”
Wall Street Journal

'Gutsy, Political, and Hypnotising' Ayre Launches Against the Grain Records

December 7, 2018

Against The Grain Theatre, Toronto's visionary chamber opera company, is known for electric performances that act as "a bracing wake-up call to the spirit" (The Globe and Mail). That daring candor is now being channeled via its new in-house recording label, which launches today with a live recording of Osvaldo Golijov's "ecstatically beautiful...radical and disorienting" song cycle Ayre (The New Yorker).

Ayre blends traditional and electronic instruments with elements of Byzantine chant, Sephardic lullabies, Sardinian protest songs, and Arabic, Hebrew, and Christian texts. Praised by Gramophone as "an intoxicating, endlessly haunting mixture of styles and musical cultures," the technically exacting song cycle has become a signature piece for AtG Founding Member Miriam Khalil.

According to Against the Grain Founder and Artistic Director Joel Ivany, the preservation of such transformative works was a major motivator in the establishment of the theatre's in-house label. "At AtG, we have made it our mandate to create fresh and daring experiences for our audiences – and with this new facet of our work, we're now able to capture and share moments of our acclaimed limited production runs."

"Against the Grain is thrilled to be able to share the immediacy and emotion of this live performance, recorded at the breathtaking Ismaili Center in Toronto, with a broader audience," he said. "Ayre is an extraordinary and unforgettable adventure."

Hear the album >

Praise for Miriam Khalil’s performance:

“The fluidity on display in Khalil’s smallest ornaments is also apparent on the largest scale in her approach to the entire work. Ayre’s eclectic sources can feel blocky in their juxtapositions, like buildings from different eras of a city thrown up with no compromise or eye to overall aesthetic cohesion. In Khalil’s rendition, the impression is more of a lived-in landscape, one where tree and grass and hill and oasis have melded together into an intricate network, no one part fully extricable from any of the others. In this way, she makes Ayre feel like a piece for our time…”
–National Sawdust Log

“Khalil's 2016 performances in Toronto - which make up Ayre Live - offer an energy and understanding that make hers a new definitive interpretation of the work.”
–Schmopera

“Titled after the Old Spanish word for “song,” Ayre is so relentless in its storytelling that it’s almost exhausting – another emotional wave we can surely ride alongside Khalil, who sings the challenging work with her whole body. Few singers have the stamina or the stylistic palette that Khalil employs throughout Ayre, and it’s even more impressive when one remembers this is a live recording.”
–The Globe and Mail

“Miriam Khalil’s performance on this album shows her to be more than a singer: she is an elemental force. There are no missteps here as each song is performed with dramatic depth, a nuanced understanding of the range of emotions and tones required by poetry and music.”
–Opera Wire

“Khalil, who speaks fluent Arabic and even grew up singing some of the songs Golijov chose, performs this cycle with a personal understanding that makes this recording a mature iteration of the work. As an opera singer, Khalil spends her voice generously in Golijov’s stretchy, hovering soprano lines. And unlike an opera singer, she sets few limits on how she uses her instrument. She begins the cycle with a sound that’s close to a Western classical voice, one that could translate into a recital of songs by Debussy or Schubert; but over Golijov’s expansive arc, she moves her voice into the technically risky sound worlds of chest voice and nasal production. As the styles intertwine, it’s astonishingly organic to hear her womanly, spinning vibrato hover over an electronic beat that is totally danceable.”
–The Globe and Mail

Praise for Against the Grain Records:

“The album is a bold way for Against the Grain to inaugurate its status as a record label. Ayre is not opera, and it's perhaps not even representative of what AtG has become most widely known for - namely, its 21st-century-spun "transladaptations" of traditional operas by Mozart and Puccini. Yet for the launching of Against the Grain Records, to lead with Ayre is to lead with a strong message of putting art and diversity first – without compromising on quality.”
–Schmopera

“With Ayre Live, Against the Grain Theatre has christened its new record label with a piece that evades definition, a game in which artistic director Joel Ivany excels. The recording is a nod to the opera collective’s roots, with its spotlight on founding member Khalil, but more importantly, it’s something that will make it into my daily playlist. It’s too bold for background music, too tough to forget after even just one listen.”
–The Globe and Mail

“Toronto-based chamber opera company Against the Grain Theater has launched a new record label. I can’t think of better start to such a venture than this recording of Osvaldo Golijov’s song cycle, “Ayre.” The work captures some of the company’s central ideals: beauty, relevance, and innovation.”
–Opera Wire

A 'Perfect Storm of Vocalism' by The 'Greatest Verdi Voices of Our Age'

November 22, 2018

Photo by Todd Rosenberg

““Jamie Barton as Azucena achieved the finest and most convincing blend of great Verdi singing and compelling acting. For once the final act was not an absurd anticlimax and the mezzo-soprano was riveting here – Barton’s high notes soared like a bel canto soprano and her growling chest voice had a disturbing, almost feral quality. She charted the imprisoned Azucena’s psychological disintegration with an almost clinical degree of vocal and dramatic acuity. All four principals were at their best in the final scene, delivering unbridled, truly great Verdi singing that defines opera at its most thrilling and visceral.””

— Chicago Classical Review

Lyric Opera of Chicago is receiving critical acclaim for the stellar cast of Il trovatore, featuring mezzo Jamie Barton as Azucena and tenor Russell Thomas as her adopted son, Manrico. Conducted by Marco Armiliato, the production by Sir David McVicar plays through December 9 at the Civic Opera House; tickets can be purchased via the Lyric.

Read reviews:

Photo by Todd Rosenberg

“Barton brought both musical and dramatic depth to her reading of Azucena. Most striking here was Barton’s low register, a throaty, guttural timbre reflecting the darkness of her deeds. In Barton’s nuanced performance, Azucena emerged a cursed but somewhat sympathetic villain. This “Trovatore” hinged on Wilson’s and Barton’s imposing vocals, which will be remembered long after the rest is forgotten.”

–Chicago Tribune

“Pride of place must go to the sensational mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton in the role of Azucena. In her opening number "Stride la vampa," Barton was remarkable in how she captured her character's emotional volatility. From stridency, to trauma, to guilt, to fury, Barton's performance was a masterclass in affective singing-acting. You could have closed your eyes and known exactly what this character was going through.”

–Schmopera

Photo by Todd Rosenberg

“Barton delivers powerful, show-stopping singing as Azucena, capturing the variously crazed, forlorn facets of this conflicted character…”
–Chicago Sun-Times

“American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton is a stunning Azucena. She has a coffee-rich darkness to her voice, and her storytelling ability is tremendous. Azucena in the wrong hands can appear to be a silly or demented old woman, but Barton imbues the character with ominous power.”

–Hyde Park Herald

“Jamie Barton is one of the world’s great mezzo-sopranos and her Azucena was masterful. Her powerful voice complemented perhaps the best dramatic skills among the principals. Her Azucena was less fanatical and more a woman who has been severely damaged... Her fiery showpiece “Stride la vampa” was one of the highlights of the matinee.“

–Opera Wire

Photo by Todd Rosenberg

“Barton is pitch perfect as the gypsy Azucena…providing inspiring vocal thrills throughout.”

–Chicago Now

“Barton’s performances as Azucena holds back nothing. The height of her voice is matched by the anguish on her face and in her body.“
–Around The Town Chicago

“Speaking of sublime, how can we start to describe the perfect storm of vocalism which was created by an ensemble of some of the greatest Verdi voices of our age? Every singer was ideally cast in these difficult roles. Azucena…is often played with hair-raising intensity, bordering on the grotesque. Jamie Barton was a more sympathetic character and sang the role more beautifully, not in small part due to the pathos inherent in her warm full mezzo soprano. Still chilling, yes, but believable.”

–Buzz Center Stage

“At the center of the Trovatore story is Azucena, sung here by Jamie Barton, an impressive 37-year-old with a voice of steadfast strength and only a few Azucenas under her belt, although there are doubtless many more in the offing. Azucena’s early scene at the gypsy camp is a tour de force; Manrico listens as she relives her horror at the crowd’s delight in her mother’s immolation, then dissolves into viscerally thrilling madness... There is realism in Barton’s insightful reading of this self-made human horror.”

–Chicago on the Aisle

“Lyric provided the finest, best matched group of lead singers that I can imagine singing today. Jamie Barton certainly laid claim to being the Azucena of her generation. The voice has bloomed and become more powerful, and last night she deployed a lower register that I hadn’t heard from her before. She sang and acted with beauty and skill, and the contrast between her lust for vengeance for her mother’s death and her maternal protectiveness toward Manrico has never been clearer. Her “Stride la vampa” in Act Two was a model of dramatic vocalism, yet she was able to sing softly and ravishingly in Act Four’s “Ai nostri monti” when the imprisoned Azucena longs for her previous life in the mountains. And her rendition of the opera’s final line “Sei vendicata, o Madre!” was chilling and raise goose bumps on this reviewer.”

–Parterre Box

Photo by Todd Rosenberg

“The fervency and emotional commitment of Thomas’s interpretation proved fiercely effective… The ardor he expressed for Leonora in “Ah si, ben mio, coll’essere” and the heat he generated in the vocally daunting “Di quella pira” underscored the stature of his work. Here was a tenor who didn’t so much act the role of the doomed lover Manrico as inhabit it.”

–Chicago Tribune

“Tenor Russell Thomas delivers an impassioned, technically secure turn in the title role of Manrico. He really comes on in the second half, especially in his Act 3 vow of devotion to Leonora, ‘Ah! si, ben mio.’”
–Chicago Sun-Times

“Lyric gives us the powerhouse Russell Thomas… His soaring, full-throated tenor is outstanding…”

–Stage and Cinema

“Russel Thomas gets his well-deserved first starring role at the Lyric as Manrico, and his tenor is warm and sweet. During his battle cry to save Azucena, “Di quella pira,” his presiding emotion is love, and the one time we hear him performing as the titular troubadour, his voice is mysterious and alluring.”

–Around The Town Chicago

“The title role of Manrico (the troubadour) is in solid hands with American tenor Russell Thomas [who] has the bearing of both a lover and a fighter…”

–Hyde Park Herald

Photo by Todd Rosenberg


“Thomas delivered an incredible performance as Manrico, imbibing every tone with courage and heroism to instill a deep sense of empathy in audiences.”

–Loyola Phoenix

“Thomas was an imposing Manrico. He conveyed the depths of his emotions with a tender “Ah si! Ben mio” while his fiery “Di quella pira” was in stark contrast with determined intensity.”

–Opera Wire

“There’s no denying that Russell is a brilliant tenor with star power and a stage presence to match. Especially gripping was his Act III aria-cabaletta ‘Ah, si ben mio…di quella pira.’”

–Schmopera

“Speaking of sublime, how can we start to describe the perfect storm of vocalism which was created by an ensemble of some of the greatest Verdi voices of our age? Every singer was ideally cast in these difficult roles. Tenor Russell Thomas was well up to the daunting task of the Troubador, Manrico. His clarion tenor, so powerful at full voice, was tenderly sympathetic in the softer moments, when his color became more burnished. Manricos’ aria, “Ah, si, ben mio”, was lyrical, idiomatic and meltingly lovely.”

–Buzz Center Stage

“As star-crossed lovers, tenor Russell Thomas and soprano Tamara Wilson become sadder and wiser quickly, but not without singing gloriously about it. Thomas’ “Di quella pira” was the stratospheric show-stopper one always hopes for.”

–Chicago on the Aisle

Photo by Todd Rosenberg

“Lyric provided the finest, best matched group of lead singers that I can imagine singing today. Tenor Russell Thomas was a heroic Manrico, bringing stentorian power throughout. He had all the tools for a successful Manrico in his pocket, singing with a stunning intensity. He provided a stirring “Di quella pira”… a thrilling musical moment.”

–Parterre Box

“As Manrico, Russell Thomas clearly possesses the Verdian bona fides for this heroic protagonist. The tenor was able to sustain a strenuous vocal intensity to handle the demands of this voice-shredding role. “Di quella pira” was the rousing showstopper it was meant to be for once, Thomas singing every note and nailing the top C. Yet he also showed a graceful lyricism in “Ah, si, ben mio” and the duetted scenes with Leonora…”

–Chicago Classical Review

Lidiya Yankovskaya Leads 'A Flexible And Richly Idiomatic' Iolanta

November 18, 2018

Photo by Michael Brosilow

Russian-American conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya recently led the Chicago premiere of Iolanta, Tchaikovsky’s final opera, at Chicago Opera Theater.

Though Yankovskaya was appointed Music Director of COT in 2017, the 18/19 season opener marked her debut in the orchestra pit. Critics praised her leadership, citing it as a new beginning for Chicago Opera Theater.

Read reviews:

“Yankovskaya…led a flexible and richly idiomatic account of this score. She showed clear sympathy with her compatriot’s music—keeping the music flowing through the unbroken 90 minutes, balancing deftly to bring out Tchaikovsky’s woodwind accents, and building lyric climaxes to resplendent payoffs.”
–Chicago Classical Review

“All follow Maestra Yankovskaya with ease, and she brings the piece to full flower…For anyone who has had recent doubts about the vitality of opera, it’s a pure tonic.”
–Chicagoland Musical Theatre

“Maestra Yankovskaya’s debut in the pit was promising and gratifying. She brought out all the pathos and grandness in the lush score, without ever overpowering the singers, quite an accomplishment in an intimate theater with such an exposed orchestra pit.”
–Buzz Center Stage

“Conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya in her company debut, [this is] a production that is as dazzling as it is emotionally and musically complex. Led by Yankovskaya, the orchestra’s music buoys each character’s journey.”

–Picture this Post

“Under the baton of Lidiya Yankovskaya, Tchaikovsky’s score became transcendent. With the thorough preparation of the score and empathy with the composer (both having Russian roots and then Western influences), she lovingly guided the singers and orchestra through every ebb and flow of the music, shifting from tenderness to passion, while keeping the pace of the opera moving ahead.”
–Opera Wire

“COT is going in the right direction. This show marks a new beginning for COT, especially with Lidiya Yankovskaya. The music-making was at such a high level, and the singing was so committed and engaged. I felt like I was hearing this opera for the first time – that this is fresh, this is new, and this is something I need to pay attention to.”
–Opera Box Score

“Lidiya Yankovskaya’s rapid rise among U.S.-based conductors of her generation seems to be driven as much by her exceptional talent as her eagerness to take on ambitious, out-of-the-way artistic projects. On Saturday, the 32-year-old Russian-American maestro made her official debut…conducting a fringe-repertory piece that’s close to her heart and place of origin: Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta. Yankovskaya’s supple command of musical shape and dramatic continuity was never in doubt. One can only hope COT’s new music director – a staunch champion of Russian opera in the 22 years since she arrived on these shores – will favor Chicago with more Russian rarities in the not-too-distant future.”

–Musical America

Christopher Allen Offers 'Artistic Salvation' in Ne Quittez Pas

September 30, 2018

Photos by Dominic M. Mercier

““At equal partnership with Racette is Music Director and Pianist, Christopher Allen. His playing of Poulenc’s writing is superb. From the first tones of Poulenc’s Intermezzo No. 3 to the final sounds of the opera, each and every note was played with such clarity, command, and tenderness, that the audience is left unaware of the immense difficulty of the music.””

— Schmopera

Christopher Allen has made a critically acclaimed Opera Philadelphia debut, in an unusually multi-faceted role as music director, pianist, and actor for Ne Quittez Pas. The program, a re-imagining of Poulenc’s La voix humaine for Opera Philadelphia’s Festival O18, starred Patricia Racette in a production by James Darrah.

Read reviews:

“Voix Humaine is heard here accompanied by an excellent solo pianist, Christopher Allen… To their credit, though, the performers (including pianist Allen, who deserves some kind of MVP award) commit fully to Darrah’s vision.”
Parterre Box

“Pianist Christopher Allen had a wonderful feel for Poulenc's alternating sweetness and acid, and I often wished Darrah had granted both him and Nelson the simple visual quiet of a small white spotlight.”
Philadelphia Inquirer

“Yet in the hands of Racette and her gifted accompanist, Christopher Allen, I never came close to cringing. The production uses a piano reduction in place of full orchestra, which Allen dispatches with real feeling for Poulenc’s melodious writing…”
Broad Street Review

“[Racette’s] partner in music-making, pianist Christopher Allen proved a thrilling collaborator, finding orchestral colors in his virtuosic playing.”
Opera Today

“I'd say that more is less, except for the elegant piano performances by Music Director Christopher Allen, which I found quite pleasing.”
Broadway World

“…Poulenc songs with the impeccable collaboration of pianist/music director Christopher Allen, creating a hauntingly penetrating sound in the cavernous cabaret. This romp through music, poetry, and devilish insanity…made the first act of Ne Quittez Pas into a revelatory vehicle for the musical talents of Christopher Allen and Edward Nelson. The second half is the actual Jean Cocteau play, La voix humaine… Christopher Allen did a masterful job with the score.”
Philly Life & Culture

“There’s nobility, too, in the soprano Patricia Racette’s…masterly performance, and Christopher Allen’s responsive piano collaboration…”
The New York Times

“The piano accompaniment, performed by Christopher Allen…made its pain especially intimate.”
Wall Street Journal

“Music Director and pianist Christopher Allen offered artistic salvation from beginning to end, including his rendition of Poulenc’s Intermezzo no. 3 during the opening scene…”
Bachtrack

“…Christopher Allen’s ability to hold it all together despite whatever was transpiring on stage, all the while playing magnificently.”
Seen and Heard International

Barton and Thomas Give 'Extraordinary Performances' in Roberto Devereux

September 14, 2018

Photo by Cory Weaver for San Francisco Opera

““Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton and tenor Russell Thomas…both gave extraordinary performances. Fresh from winning performances as Fricka and Waltraute during last summer’s Ring, Barton proved herself one of opera’s great chameleons. Is there anything she can’t sing? With her velvety voice, she sailed through the arias and duets… Thomas made the difficult title role sound like a child’s play and he imbued his performance with swagger and confidence.””

— Parterre Box

Mezzo Jamie Barton and tenor Russell Thomas are receiving critical acclaim for their respective role debuts as Sara and Roberto in San Francisco Opera’s production of Roberto Devereux alongside acclaimed Elisabetta interpreter Sondra Radvanovsky.

Conducted by Riccardo Frizza, the Stephen Lawless production plays through September 27 at the War Memorial Opera House; tickets can be purchased via San Francisco Opera.

Read reviews:

Photo by Cory Weaver for San Francisco Opera

“As in every other appearance in San Francisco, Barton impressed greatly with beauty of tone and effortless projection in the huge, 3,200-seat War Memorial. The role of Sara is almost pure bel canto, and Barton’s floating of melodic lines was nonpareil. Vocal beauty was a hallmark of Thomas’ performance. Thomas’ vocal performance in duets and a splendid ‘Come uno spirto angelico’ were to be treasured.”
Classical Voice North America

“Splendid mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, as Sara, the Duchess of Nottingham, meltingly and sweetly expresses her guilt-ridden love for dashing Roberto Devereux, Earl of Essex. As the object of both women’s desire, tenor Russell Thomas made an endearingly strong first appearance in the title role. He unfurled lyric charm and verve in his arias and duets, and was particularly moving seeking to defend Sara’s honor in the touching Act 3 aria ‘Como uno spirto angelico.’”
San Francisco Examiner

“Radvanovsky had valiant, expressive colleagues by her side — mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton and tenor Russell Thomas, the same ensemble that had contributed to the splendor of that ‘Norma’… Barton, as Sara, gave a performance rich in pathos and cloaked in the thickly upholstered vocal colors that make her singing so irresistible. Thomas brought tonal clarity and rhythmic vigor to the title role…”
San Francisco Chronicle

“As Sarah, Jamie Barton deployed her velvety, richly colored mezzo with beauty and urgency to limn the character’s desire and anguish. In the title role, tenor Russell Thomas made an indelible impression. His sturdy physique and clear, unforced tenor yielded an ardent Act I duet with Sarah, and he sang with elegant line in his Tower of London aria, ‘Come uno spirito angelico’.”
Opera News

Photo by Cory Weaver for San Francisco Opera

“As Elisabetta’s friend and innocent rival Sara, Jamie Barton deploys a richly layered, tightly controlled voice that she makes delicate or harsh to suit the drama. In a den of nasty personalities, Barton’s Sara is touchingly sincere. Russell Thomas’s Roberto Devereux [is] a smirking, conceiting poppycock, speaking noble-sounding words while flaunting the ring he knows will save him. He is at his most sympathetic in the third act, when he realizes he may not escape his fate. There, Thomas’s hefty, mobile voice gains a buttery softness and breaks off achingly at the end of phrases.”
San Francisco Classical Voice

“Barton set the tone with liquid phrasing and her signature burnished sound. With a pure, focused tenor sound, remarkably even from top to bottom, Thomas managed to convey both the nobility and anguish of the title character…He created a time-stopping moment as he awaited his execution with his Act III aria, ‘Bagnato il sen di lagrime.’”
Seen and Heard International

“The whole ensemble delivers near flawless singing and acting. Jamie Barton, as Sara…provides a warm, round, mellow mezzo voice with great resonance. Russell Thomas shows his versatility as the proud yet anguished Roberto. He extends his expertise with a clear voice that bridges styles and ranges, with highlights including his duet ‘Nascondi freni i palpiti’ with Radvanovsky and his prison lament ‘Come uno spirto angelico.’”
Berkshire Fine Arts 

Kicking off The 2018/19 Season

September 5, 2018

The 2018/19 season will take Verismo artists – including the opera singers, conductor, and string quartet highlighted below – from Istanbul and Amsterdam to New York and London, as they make important role and house debuts and renew connections with favorite collaborators.

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Jamie Barton, Mezzo

Sara in Roberto Devereux
San Francisco Opera
September 8-27, 2018
*role debut

Azucena in Il trovatore
Bayerische Staatsoper
October 7-17, 2018

Mezzo Soloist in Verdi Requiem
Royal Opera House Covent Garden
October 23, 2018

Azucena in Il trovatore
Lyric Opera of Chicago
November 17-December 9, 2018

Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking
Atlanta Opera
February 2-10, 2019
*role debut

 

Fricka in Das Rheingold
Metropolitan Opera
March 9-May 6, 2019

Recital with Kathleen Kelly
Renée Fleming VOICES
Kennedy Center
March 23, 2019

Fricka in Die Walküre
Metropolitan Opera
March 25-May 7, 2019
*March 30 simulcast in cinemas via Met Live in HD

Jezibaba in Rusalka
San Francisco Opera
June 16-28, 2019

Photo by Stacey Bode

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Photo by Gabriel Gastelum

Christopher Allen, Conductor

Ne Quittez Pas
Opera Philadelphia
September 22-30, 2018

Candide
New England Conservatory
October 23-24, 2018

The Barber of Seville
Michigan Opera Theatre
November 10-18, 2018

Bel Canto Trio
70th Anniversary Tour
November-December 2018

 

Recital with Joshua Guerrero
December 2018

An American Original
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
January 10-12, 2019

Rising Stars Concert
Lyric Opera of Chicago
April 2019

The Marriage of Figaro
Opera Theatre of St. Louis
May 25-June 29, 2019

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Corinne Winters, Soprano

Soprano Soloist in Verdi Requiem
Monteverdi Choir & Orchestra
2018 European Tour
September 16 – Wroclaw, Poland
September 18 – London, UK
September 20 – Pisa, Italy
October 30 – Lucerne, Switzerland
November 1 – Vienna, Austria
November 2 – Budapest, Hungary
November 4 – Munich, Germany
November 5 – Luxembourg, Luxembourg
November 7 – Amsterdam, Netherlands

Tatiana in Eugene Onegin
Michigan Opera Theatre
October 13-21, 2018

 

Soloist in Bachianas Brasileiras
True Concord | TDSF
January 18-20, 2019

Rachel in La Juive
Opera Vlaanderen
March 10-April 6, 2019
*role debut

Soloist in Les nuits d'été
Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra
April 11, 2019

Soloist in García Lorca: Muse and Magician
New York Festival of Song
April 24, 2019

Photo by Fay Fox

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Photo by Fay Fox

Russell Thomas, Tenor

Roberto in Roberto Devereux
San Francisco Opera
September 8-27, 2018
*role debut

Manrico in Il trovatore
Bayerische Staatsoper
October 7-17, 2018

Manrico in Il trovatore
Lyric Opera of Chicago
November 17-December 9, 2018

Tenor Soloist in Das Lied von der Erde
Dallas Symphony
January 10-13, 2019

 

Tito in La clemenza di Tito
Los Angeles Opera
March 2-24, 2019

Otello in Otello
Canadian Opera Company
April 27-May 26, 2019
*staged role debut

Otello in Otello
Deutsche Oper Berlin
June 8-20, 2019

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Fry Street Quartet

As One
Album Recording
September 10-13, 2018

The Crossroads Project: Rising Tide
Indiana University Cinema
October 4, 2018

Bartok String Quartets: Complete Cycle
Utah State University
November 6-8, 2018

Earthbound
NOVA Chamber Music Series
January 20, 2019

 

FSQ @ USU Series
February 5, 2019

FSQ @ USU Series
March 5, 2019

The Crossroads Project: Rising Tide
Shepherd University
April 17, 2019

The Crossroads Project: Rising Tide
Longwood Gardens
April 18, 2019

Photo by Andrew McAllister

Barton on The Big Screen

July 23, 2018

Photo by Ken Howard

Mezzo Jamie Barton's "magnificent," "malevolent," "mezzo force-of-nature" Jezibaba will writhe across the big screen at the Metropolitan Opera's Summer HD Festival at Lincoln Center, where 3,000 lucky audience members can see "one of the sexiest performances of the season" in Dvorak's Rusalka. Details via the Metropolitan Opera.

In the 2018/19 season, Barton will appear as Fricka in the Met's production of Die Walküre, to be simulcast in cinemas in more than 70 countries worldwide via the Met's Live in HD. Tickets now on sale; details available via the Metropolitan Opera.

Read more Rusalka reviews: 

“What makes this show bearable, if not indeed indispensable, is the presence of the magnificent mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton as Jezibaba. It’s hard to find adjectives superlative enough to describe her voice: huge and sumptuous, but with such broad possibilities of color that the singer can chill the blood with just a glint of steel in the tone. Though I didn’t care for the jokey take on the character Zimmerman imposed on her, I was flabbergasted at how passionately Barton threw herself into the performance. Lurching, heaving and writhing nonstop, she looked as if she might any moment explode out of sheer malevolence. If everyone involved in this Rusalka were operating at Barton’s level, the Met would have its biggest hit of the decade. As it is, the company might be better off condensing the opera to a single hour-long act called Hello, Jezibaba!”
New York Observer

“The real marvel of the cast was Jamie Barton, who was absolutely sensational as the sorceress Jezibaba. Her voice was a wonder in itself, a full, shady mezzo with harrowing power, and fierce fire in her chest. Of everyone in the cast, she had the most success in navigating the cartoonish aesthetic of the production, hamming it up just enough to embrace the comic elements of the role, but never forgetting its essential darkness. Barton brings tremendous presence to the stage, coupled here with a specific and deliciously wicked vocal characterization.”
New York Classical Review

"The production had a windfall in American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton as the witch Jezibaba; Barton’s charisma and vocal power produced one of the sexiest performances of the season. As the surprise erotic center of the production, Barton’s dominance of the stage (and obvious pleasure in that dominance) was absolute. Barton’s massive mezzo erupts like a foghorn at unexpected moments; at other times it slides sinuously around Dvořák’s curvaceous folk melodies. In the potion scene, “Čury mury fuk” (abracadabra), Barton punctuates her movements like a dancer, putting meaning into each self-satisfied flick of a finger... At the conclusion of this ingeniously choreographed scene, Barton coquettishly pulls a pair of goggles down over her eyes, her lips curling in sensuous satisfaction. The change from Zajick’s performances as Jezibaba in the Schenk Rusalka was enormous."
City Journal

"Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton was mesmerizing as Jezibaba, throwing herself physically into the role and singing with matchless power and control. Costumed as a Victorian granny, she was required to perform the role with a toothy sneering grin, exaggerated by her goth-like dark lipstick, but nothing deterred her. She has become one of the great treasures of our era."
Classical Voice North America

"Barton can steal the show just by opening those velvet tonsils of her and letting the sumptuous sounds and array of colors burst forth. And she did. I'd listen to Barton anytime--oh, that velour!"
Broadway World Opera

"As Jezibaba, Jamie Barton, in a wonderful spiderweb dress, blended comedy and cruelty, her pungent mezzo taking on a fierce brightness."
Wall Street Journal

“Barton is a lot of fun here. Her low mezzo is irresistibly rich and colorful, epic in size and effortless. (I’ve seen a lot of Rusalkas and hence a lot of Jezibabas and she is the best by a large margin.) She also shows real comic flair in a villain mode.”
Likely Impossibilities

"As a gruesomely witty Jezibaba, Jamie Barton’s sensational dark mezzo showed much Wagnerian promise."
Gay City News

"Jamie Barton devoured the lusty-nasty-witchy flailings of Jezibaba."
Financial Times

"Jamie Barton was an excellent fit for the role of the witch Jezibaba. Her big scenes in Act I and III were powerfully sung, drowning out the little mermaid with her rich pliant instrument. She had enough gas for the big finish in Act III, leaving the audience stunned."
Paper Blog

“Jamie Barton, a recent winner of the Beverly Sills Artist Award, is a delightfully campy villain as the witch Jezibaba. Her meaty mezzo is wonderfully deployed, especially during the transformation set piece, in which Zimmerman likens Rusalka’s metamorphosis to a surgical intervention. The only drawback is the role’s brevity in a rather long evening, leaving the audience craving more of Barton’s superlative work.”
Parterre Box

“Barton, a mezzo from Georgia who is becoming a Met mainstay, is wickedly devious as Jezibaba.”
Huffington Post

“Jamie Barton gobbled the lusty-nasty-witchy flailings of Ježibaba.”
Financial Times

"Barton was electric as Jezibaba. Her take on the character was a “Satan-lite,” if you will, the character a fun-loving yet conniving villain. Her main interactions in the opera are with the tragic heroine, the witch getting to control the dynamics of the scenes throughout. Barton relished these moments, letting her gigantic instrument run wild throughout the massive halls of the Met. Her diction was delicious as she twisted every consonant or set of mixed consonants to fill out the portrait of a seemingly evil character that was simply having a ton of fun. Her phrasing had an aggressive quality, especially as she preyed on Rusalka to sign the contract, a literally selling of the soul to the devil. Her demeanor was darker in the final act, the sound more lethal in its accented brutality (though no less beautiful to listen to) and her glare dangerous."
Opera Wire

"Jamie Barton was a vocal standout as Jezibaba, her rich and deep chest voice a special and memorable treat."
Bachtrack

“The real find in this cast is American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton who, in both voice and temperament, creates an over-the-top witch, complete with cobalt-blue contact lenses and spider-web dress.”
TheaterByte

“American mezzo-soprano force-of-nature Jamie Barton (Jezibaba), launches her magnificently voluptuous voice and blasts a wicked, maniacal cackle to blood-curdling effect.”
Blasting News

“Jamie Barton, the lavish, demonically-dressed Jezibaba, played the joy of wickedness with almost glittering eyes.”
Der Neue Merker

“Jamie Barton’s Jezibaba was a clever and very entertaining witch. The young mezzo-soprano from Rome – Georgia! – is moving to stardom most rapidly.”
Riverstown Patch

“The witch Jezibaba is mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, who exudes charm and wit as the sorceress who combines all kinds of ingredients in her steaming well.”
Bitácora

“Jamie Barton sang opulently as the witch Jezibaba.”
Opera Magazine

“Jamie Barton, who created a truly original witch Jezibaba, deserves a special mention. Barton’s Jezibaba was cruel, amusing, perverse, and – above all – charismatic. The caricatured gestures which accompanied her impeccable vocal performance earned her a well-deserved place among the great witches of opera and – why not? – of cartoon.”
Música en México

“Jamie Barton as Jezibaba was gloriously demented as the wily witch. She gets to play some delicious comedy and sings with such skill, you feel like she is really capable of casting spells with sound.”
NY Theatre Guide

"The most adventurous touch was...the witch Jezibaba, brought to vivid, scene-stealing life by the protean talents of mezzo Jamie Barton [and] Barton's wickedly funny conquests of her scenes..."
Opera News

"Jamie Barton’s devilish Jezibaba was the highlight. Surrounded by half-human/half-animal henchmen, Barton brought such electric charisma that it was hard not to find affection for the wily sorceress."
Classical Source

"The extraordinary Jamie Barton is the vocal star of this production and outshines even Eric Owens, just as she outshone Plácido Domingo in the Met’s Nabucco this winter. Barton and her critters are terrifying: Her cackle froze the auditorium’s giblets."
New Republic

“As the crusty witch Jezibaba, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton dug into her lower range with some dramatically appropriate guttural effects, but more than her predecessor Dolora Zajick, maintained grace and musicality no matter how nasty her sentiments.”
Operavore

Jamie Barton's Fricka Has 'Vocal Balls of Steel'

June 18, 2018

Photo by Cory Weaver

““Jamie Barton, singing so beautifully in Das Rheingold, proves she has vocal balls of steel as well, delivering a Fricka of power and considerable subtlety. 1930s-Wotan may have moved on, but she has absolutely no intention of letting morals slide. Wheedling, cajoling commanding, she can play the kitten, gently twitting her husband’s nose, but in this relationship it is she who is determined to wear the palazzo pants. The voice is still creamy, but when the top notes fly, the audience are pinned to their seats. For a woman who seems the up-and-coming bel canto mezzo of the moment, she’s one hell of a versatile singer.””

— Limelight Magazine

Mezzo Jamie Barton sings her first complete Ring cycle, as Fricka in Wagner's Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, and as Waltraute and 2nd Norn in Götterdämmerung, alongside a starry cast led by Donald Runnicles at San Francisco Opera. Three cycles play through July 2, with tickets available via SFO.

Read more reviews: 

"Barton brought verve and tonal warmth to the role of Fricka, Wotan’s strong-willed, though often sensitive, wife."
SF Examiner

“A stentorian yet humane performance."
San Francisco Chronicle

"Softening the usually harsh edges on Fricka (Mrs. Wotan), Barton gave sympathetic insight and gorgeous voice to a difficult character."
Bay Area Reporter

“I would not want to anger Jamie Barton’s fierce Fricka…”
Bachtrack

“More vocal honours are due to…Jamie Barton’s sumptuous Fricka, blessed with razor-sharp diction and an instinctive way with the words. Barton’s appealing performance makes the Queen of the Gods into a preternaturally dim society matron – the kind that used to harry poor old Groucho Marx… With her flexible, creamy mezzo you’d have to go a long way to hear the role more beautifully sung.”
Limelight Magazine

“Barton, who has become one of the finest Wagner singers of her generation, sounded first-rate.”
The Mercury News

“A terrific, formidable Fricka, rolling her Rs with relish as she laid down the law.”
Classical Voice North America

“Completely convincing... Barton’s rich, warm voice portrays a woman who has gained self-confidence and who asserts her power. Barton’s Fricka plays with the emotions of Grimsley’s Wotan, exuding a combination of charm, anger and logic to derail Wotan’s long-term plans for recovering the cursed Nibelung Ring.”
Opera Warhorses

“Barton takes one of the thorniest challenges in all of the Ring’s demands. In Act II she manages a mesmerizing, searing turn in straightening out her wayward husband without a descent into caricature.”
Out West Arts

“Barton was a molten-voiced goddess of marriage, determined to uphold the tradition, as Wotan’s wife Fricka.”
SF Examiner

“Barton brought power, nuance, and beauty to Fricka, Waltraute, and the Second Norn, particularly her hurt, yet commanding, Walküre Fricka. That performance seemed to single-handedly raise the heat level on stage considerably.”
San Francisco Classical Voice

“Traditional morality could have no more eloquent a champion than Barton, whose Fricka was a dynamo of implacable reasoning delivered in lusty, full-throated tones.”
San Francisco Chronicle

“Zambello’s Norns (Ronnita Miller, Jamie Barton and Sarah Cambidge) are the hapless ghosts in this machine and they couldn’t be better sung. Impeccable diction and voices of real substance get the opera off to a tremendously powerful start… Previously impressing mightily for both power and beauty of line as the cycle’ Fricka, Jamie Barton delivers an equally radiantly sung Waltraute.”
Limelight Magazine

“Barton ranged from heroic pride to deflated grief as she described the felling of the ash tree as the Second Norn, and later served as a compelling Waltraute… She showed a great sense of pacing as she led the soft brass and timpani accompaniment in the orchestra, and a rich warmth as she told Brünnhilde of Wotan’s wish that the ring be returned.”
Parterre Box

'When you hear Barton, you want this opera renamed Adalgisa'

April 30, 2018

Photo by Cory Weaver

““Mezzo Jamie Barton...former HGO Studio Artist and conquering international singer, supplies heft, smoky velvet tone, and incomparable artistry to good girl gone bad then good. Sometimes a second lead makes this opera her own – Marilyn Horne immediately comes to mind. When you hear Barton’s glorious plangency, you want this opera renamed Adalgisa. She walks away with this production on a platter.””

— Houston Press

Mezzo Jamie Barton brings her Adalgisa, one of her signature roles, to Norma at Houston Grand Opera, where she trained in the HGO Studio. Led by music director Patrick Summers, the cast includes Liudmyla Monastyrska in the title role, opposite Chad Shelton as Pollione. Performances at the Resilience Theater run through May 11, 2018, with tickets available via HGO.

Read more reviews: 

"When mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, playing the young priestess Adalgisa, blended her rich tones with Monastyrska’s in their Act 2 due, “Mira, o Norma,” the mellifluous outcome recalled the classic pairing of Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne... The darkness and weight of Barton’s voice captured Adalgisa’s heavy-heartedness even at a whisper. Every phrase was alive and expressive."
Texas Classical Review

“A spellbinding performance that was a master class of bel canto virtuosity and dramatic connection…”
Houston Chronicle

"A star performance in Jamie Barton's Adalgisa... Barton showed her versatility in several registers of her voice, but most particularly the upper octave. It is exactly this trait that showcases how calling Adalgisa just another mezzo role is not telling the whole story. Barton was the most dynamic actress of the bunch, displaying her internal conflict especially vividly..."
Schmopera

“Barton, whose voice transformed Wagner’s frumpy Fricka into utter sophistication for HGO’s Ring cycle, showed her breadth as an artist with Bellini’s ornamented bel canto, handling each turn and leap with silky ease."
Houstonia

“Barton’s performance was absolutely thrilling. Flaunting a truly luxurious, rich-voiced mezzo reminiscent of the great Marilyn Horne...exquisitely phrased with a honeyed tone, even legato, and abundantly resonant chest voice. Barton and Monastyrska easily spun out phrase after phrase of gorgeous legato..."
Opera Wire

Corinne Winters Makes Australian Debut

April 17, 2018

““A commanding, sometimes cool, sometimes rent Violetta from the American soprano Corinne Winters…””

— The Saturday Paper

American soprano Corinne Winters makes her Australian debut in the beloved Moshinsky production of La traviata at Opera Australia. Conducted by Carlo Montanaro, La traviata runs through May 11. Tickets can be purchased via Opera Australia.

Photo by Jeff Busby

Read more reviews:

"The ideal vehicle for introducing a star soprano... The Opera Australia debut of American Corinne Winters was rapturously received. Winters brings an abundance of knowledge to her signature role. She is as much an actor who sings as an operatic star. Her ease and fluidity on the stage allow her to relax into the character and focus on many elements which breathe life into a character. Ms. Winters’ dark and rich vocal tone handled with ease the many vigorous demands Verdi makes of his protagonist. This was a captivating portrait which drew well-deserved applause."
ConcertoNet

"Warm and expressive, ultimately catching fire during Violetta’s demise in the final act..."
Bachtrack

"Riveting performances... As Violetta lies distraught and dying, Winters comes into her full strength, giving a genuinely moving performance. Singing Violetta’s lament, “Addio, del passato,” Winters in full control and is seen and heard at her best."
Man in Chair

"Winters was at her best as the ailing Violetta of Act III, capturing the despair and desperation of a dying woman with affecting authenticity, her voice pale and pianissimo."
Canberra Times

"Winters’s vocal range and emotive portrayal of Violetta were on display and it was impossible not to be entranced."
The Plus Ones

"Winters worked the festivities vivaciously in creamy-rich voice as Violetta... Stirred by emotion and pondering if Alfredo could be the one when left alone singing “È strano! ... Ah, fors’è lui,” Winters bloomed marvellously. It was the emotional emphatic bursts on single phrases that genuinely crowned her performance."
Herald Sun

“The rich sound and particular texture of Winters' voice is unique. A powerful actor, her final act was especially potent with her voice often floating with sustained fragility.”
ArtsHub

“A commanding, sometimes cool, sometimes rent Violetta from the American soprano Corinne Winters… It is hard to fault Winters. She glides, she soars with a magnificence of coloratura that is merely the theatrical expression of a wholly consistent characterisation, sometimes coolly self-possessed in the face of tightly controlled desire, sometimes enraptured, sometimes very convincingly at the edge of despair. This is a very contemporary Violetta – musically flawless but with a convincing and enshrouding self-possession that rises to meet the implicit tragedy with which Verdi, almost against the odds, transfigures melodrama into tragedy.”
The Saturday Paper

Jamie Barton's Princess Eboli Is 'The Star of The Evening' in WNO Don Carlo

March 7, 2018

Photo by Scott Suchman

““Even in a cast as extraordinarily strong as this one, Barton rises above. She radiates such boisterous joy in singing that it’s impossible not to be taken under her spell. She alternates lines of exquisite bel canto lyricism and then shoots declamatory passages like laser beams into the upper tiers of the opera house. Her “O don fatale” elicited one of those magical operatic moments where time stops, and at the end of her final phrase you realize you forgot to breathe.””

— Schmopera

Mezzo Jamie Barton makes her American role debut as the scheming Princess Eboli in a new Tim Albery production of Verdi's Don Carlo at Washington National Opera.

Led by conductor Philippe Auguin, the legendary cast – including Russell Thomas in the title role, Leah Crocetto as Elisabetta, Quinn Kelsey as Rodrigo, Eric Owens as King Philip, and Andrea Silvestrelli as the Grand Inquisitor – performs at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts through March 17, 2018, with tickets available via WNO.

Read reviews: 

“The star of the evening, elevating the mezzo role of Princess Eboli from vengeful femme fatale to a wounded but sympathetic courtier, both perpetrator and victim of the palace’s sexual intrigue. Her Veil Song was coy and sultry, and the showstopping “O don fatale” was a magnificent study…”
Washington Post

"Jamie Barton seized on every opportunity, vocal and theatrical, offered by the role of Eboli. She unleashed her ripe mezzo with enough power to push you back in your seat, but she also drew you in with the communicative animation and depth of her phrasing."
Opera News

“Barton dominated the stage on her every appearance. You quickly realized how immensely powerful her instrument could be, but her vocal agility and dynamic range amazed the most.”
Bachtrack

“Wows in power and agility. Most impressive was the deft control she possessed over such a force that was wielded as a conduit of artistry rather than brutality. A joy from start to finish."
MD Theatre Guide

"Barton used her brazen chest voice, elemental in power, to dominate the stage with arrogant spite, as steady and beautiful in ensembles as in solos."
Washington Classical Review

“A tour de force of musicality and emotionality [that] rightly deserved the thunderous applause it received.”
DC Theatre Scene

“Perhaps the biggest ovation of the evening came for Jamie Barton as Eboli after her aria “O Don Fatale.” In this passage, this incredible artist let her voice blast through the hall with unsurpassed vibrancy and control. Every moment was gloriously sculpted.”
Operawire

Jamie Barton's Recital Tour Starts with A Bang in Boston, New York

December 18, 2017

Photo by Richard Termine

Mezzo Jamie Barton kicks off a recital tour with pianist Kathleen Kelly with her Celebrity Series Boston debut and a return to Carnegie Hall.

Read reviews: 

“A thoughtful and deeply satisfying program."
The New York Times

"Barton is a wonderful recitalist, and this was a terrific program. Barton doesn’t color text—she embodies it. Her acting is powerful but finely judged: every word is alive and specific, but never floats entirely free of real speech. By the same token, her diction is so magnificent, and her projection of it so finely calibrated to the hall, that after a while you just stop looking at the printed texts.  Her final exploratory “Mmmmm,” in “Boys Lips” was an erotic education all by itself.  Her “But oh, oh, insomniac moonlight,/How unhoneyed is my middle of the night,” in “The Empty Song,” found a balance of voluptuous pain and wry self-mockery that’s precisely right for a song that’s sparked by an empty shampoo-bottle. And anyone who can get seven distinct, hearty laughs out of a mere fourteen lines of text, plus applause and bravos in the middle of a group, as Barton did with “Big Sister Says,” is assuredly cooking with gas."
ZEALnyc

"I've always wondered what it would be like to swim in a pool of maple syrup – and now I know. From the minute Ms. Barton opened her mouth, she unleashed a rolling tone that poured over her audience, soaking them in the sugary, maple tones of her delicious mezzo. We were drenched – but in the way an idyllic bite of pancake is drenched."
Broadway World Opera

“The kind of singer that changes the way we think about mezzos in this century…the kind of singer who brings us back to other centuries. The voice itself is, of course, a marvel. Rich and sonorous, but also vulnerable, it seems to emerge from the depths of the lower abdomen, as though lungs could start where legs ended, with tone shooting up from the floor.”
Parterre Box

"It’s easy to hear why Barton has become so popular, for the singer has a voice of remarkable power and depth. Barton brought lyrical grace and zeal to a wide-ranging program of songs by French, German, Austrian, and American composers. Barton’s singing is dark, yet radiant with a voice that is smooth in all registers. Given her operatic experience, particularly in Wagnerian roles, her singing also has weight and gravity. Her high notes, too, rang like a bell. But Barton’s greatest strength lies in her ability to tell stories through music. With searching intensity that found the wide emotional range of each song she sang, Barton performed as if each piece were a miniature drama. Stories, it was revealed, are best told through song."
Boston Classical Review

"Along with the extraordinary power of her voice, Barton’s luminous smile won me over before she sang a note. Barton’s radiant joy in performing was obvious. as was the special synergy she shared with her excellent pianist, Kathleen Kelly. The other surprising thing was the originality of the program, which included music very few in the audience had heard. The truth is, even without Barton’s keen musical intelligence – and that radiant voice – this song recital would have been worth hearing because of her wonderfully imaginative choice of music... I suspected I was enjoying the loveliest thing I’ll hear this holiday season."
The Arts Fuse

Jamie Barton is 'La favorite' of Madrid Audiences, Critics

November 2, 2017

Photo by Javier del Real

Mezzo Jamie Barton made her Teatro Real Madrid debut in the theater's bicentennial celebration gala, singing her first Léonor in La favorite alongside tenor Javier Camarena.

Read reviews: 

“Jamie Barton and Javier Camarena were the two triumphant protagonists last night. Camarena roused the audience, as did Leonor’s aria “O mon Fernand,” in which Barton achieved the high point of the night, in an interpretation with personality, quality, variety of expression, authority in the extremes of the registers, and daring assurance. The cabaletta finished with bravura, where before there was smooth introspection and always potent expressive concentration.”
ABC Cultura

“Jamie Barton stole the show with top-notch singing and vibrant acting. Her sumptuous mezzo is based on a solid centre, with fresh colours and a beautiful, quick vibrato, crowned with powerful high notes. She does not just live off these natural gifts but she strives for technical excellency, displaying very nuanced and contrasted phrasing, always coloured by a rich palette and by exciting chest notes. She excelled in all her duos, trusting her good form and a deep knowledge of the role. In the ecstatic “O mon Fernand” she showed how well she can control her voice with extraordinary piano singing and smooth legato. Marietta Alboni now has a worthy heiress.”
Bachtrack

“Debuting with an already fully developed interpretation, the justly deserved standout among the vocal cast was the American mezzo-soprano, Georgia native Jamie Barton, who offered a magnificent Leonor. A big voice – meaty, with generous volume and extensive range, and velvety. It’s also delicate, with an attractive timbre and impeccable placement, and a homogeneous lined-up sound. Likewise, the American singer is a great vocalist, possessing a good singing technique, dominating legato singing, dynamics, and style. All this was on stupendous display in her interpretation of Leonor’s grand scena in the second act, “Oh mon Fernand” and the subsequent cabeletta, in which she sang a high C the size of a house, that filled the theater and contributed to the celebration by adding to the theater’s history one of those memorable sounds that are heard there from time to time. A magnificent vocal performance.”
Codalario

“In the titular role, the mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton displayed a whole paragon of virtues: a big, extensive, and homogeneous voice, with a meaty round timbre, an interpretation with character, technical support, and perfect stylistic accuracy. Her Leonor had personality, magnetism, and moments of unparalleled vocal intensity, like her brilliant and vibrant cabaletta. She dominates the smooth singing just as she does the more vigorous passages and this double debut – with the role and at the Teatro Real – was a complete success for her. In her singing there is control, color, and temperament. Without a doubt, it’s a voice to follow – though certainly young, it has much to say.”
Platea Magazine

“The American mezzo Jamie Barton is the center of the action with a juicy and clear voice, in charge of attracting and engrossing the others.”
El Mundo

“Oren highlighted the extraordinary quality of the cast, led by Barton y Camarena.”
El Sombrario

"In Madrid we had the debut of Javier Camarena in the role, as well as the presence of mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton as Léonor. Both were excellent, though one must acknowledge that La Favorita del Re was also the audience’s ‘favorita’. Jamie Barton, who was making her debut in Madrid, has a wide and very beautiful voice, well-handled and expressive, and an outstanding top register. Her Léonor was superb from start to finish, and her interpretation of ‘O mon Fernand’ and the subsequent cabaletta were the highlights of the concert. She represents the continuation of the great tradition of American mezzo-sopranos, following in the footsteps of Marilyn Horne and Dolora Zajick. There’s really no comparison to Jamie Barton in this role today..."
Seen and Heard International

“Camarena and Barton carry the opera on their backs. She is a young diamond…and will do wonders in this and other roles. Her Leonor will surely be well-placed as the next in the line of those created by Stignani, Barbieri, Simionato, Cossotto, Verrett and Horne. The opposite of the usual, her voice shines most in the extreme registers of her range than in the middle voice, and in her much applauded debut at the Real – and in this particular opera – she has left an unbeatable impression.”
El Pais

A Silent Night Album Resonates

October 15, 2017

““These artists address the listener with the urgency of a prophet or an obsessive. World War I ended almost a century ago, but they make it seem present and pressing, like many of the songs it inspired. Art song recitals rarely feel so grounded in reality.””

— Opera News

A Silent Night, the first disc from baritone John Brancy and pianist Peter Dugan, has earned praise from Opera News and airtime on radio stations across the U.S. Hailed by The Washington Post as “refreshingly, marvelously different,” their WWI tribute album features the music of British, German, French, and American composers who lived through, fought in, and died in the Great War.

Read the full review in Opera News.

Jorge Mejia's Preludes Played by Simone Dinnerstein in Miami

June 23, 2017

““A full-scale and colorful mosaic. Mejia’s world is imagery, cinema, storytelling, and he doesn’t hold back...””

— El Nuevo Herald

Hosted by the New World Symphony, excerpts from Jorge Mejia's set of preludes were recently played by pianist Simone Dinnerstein, accompanied by the Havana Lyceum Orchestra in their first U.S. tour. Dinnerstein describes the preludes as “almost a genre of their own. Composed to be performed next to spoken text, they create a wonderful cinematic effect, full of vibrant colors and lush melodies.”

Read reviews and previews:

"To complete the panorama were Four Preludes for Piano by the Colombian Jorge Mejia – a full-scale and colorful mosaic. Mejia’s world is imagery, cinema, storytelling, and he doesn’t hold back. The composer narrated in Spanish before each prelude, in a trip through childhood and adolescence that portrayed his life experience, with Dinnerstein personifying it at the piano."
El Nuevo Herald

"The brilliant American pianist Simone Dinnerstein was the featured soloist in a program that included two Mozart piano concertos, four delightful sketches by Jorge Mejia, and Aaron Copland... Not since the Vietnam War have I seen our country so divided and discontent and with so little prospect for peace and unity behind our shared American values. But this concert showed me that we can, with good will, kindness and principled compromise, find ways to bridge our divisions and come together. Yes, we are turning, turning, but we will 'come ‘round right.'"
Miami Herald

"Opening the program is a special performance of preludes by composer Jorge Mejia. Each prelude is a piece of the story of Mejia’s life of coming from Colombia to the U.S.  The story of his family and his sensitivity will be narrated in Spanish as the orchestra and piano play. 'To have a pianist of Simone Dinnerstein’s caliber and to have an orchestra like this performing the pieces is absolutely exhilarating,' said Mejia."
WLRN

Learn more about Jorge Mejia.

The Atlanta Opera Brings Argentine Tango Opera to Life

May 15, 2017

As part of this year's Discoveries series, The Atlanta Opera presented Astor Piazzolla's Maria de Buenos Aires, an operita based on Argentine tango. Performed at Le Maison Rouge, a burlesque space at Paris on Ponce on the Atlanta Beltline, the chamber piece transported audience members to the Argentine capital, complete with tango dancers. General and Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun's adventurous programming is earning TAO a reputation as a company where the gamut of operatic experiences can be enjoyed. The full run of Maria was sold out nearly a year before the first performance.

Read reviews: 

“An unfailingly inviting and seductive soundworld…provided a comfortable entry point for what might otherwise have proved an elusive evening for many. Zvulun and his team can be proud of what could well become a new classic for Atlanta.”
Opera Magazine UK

"The latest offering in the Atlanta Opera’s Discoveries Series, Zvulun’s initiative to take the opera out of the opera house and explore more adventurous repertoire….[Maria was] a dream-like alchemy of jazz elements, chromaticism, and Argentina’s urban song. The suggestive choreography of the tango, highlighted throughout, infused the Atlanta Opera’s production with an undeniable authenticity."
Opera News

"Zvulun staged the show as immersive theater, taking advantage of Le Maison Rouge’s innate “red velvet bar” character to emulate that of a Buenos Aires tango bar and surround the audience with action at close range. The intimate approach and the venue’s evocative ambiance truly lent power to the performance."
ArtsATL