Schmopera
April 2016

We had the chance to talk with American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton between rehearsals for Washington National Opera's upcoming Ring Cycle, where she'll be singing Waltraute in Götterdämmerung, and covering Fricka in Die Walküre. In her mid-30s, Barton is familiar with the gamble that can be found in singing Wagner's music. "As a singer, especially a young singer, they tend to say 'don't do Wagner, don't sing it, don't listen to it, just stay away Wagner, it'll hurt your voice.'" For her, the difference lies less in age, and more in whether or not a singer is "built to sing it."

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Atlanta Magazine
March 2016

Barton may be an artistic throwback in some ways, but she does not adhere to its accompanying stereotype: She's no diva. "The diva mentality is very antiquated and has no place in modern opera," she says. "It's a distance that's selfish to your colleagues and your audience members. I prefer to think of us as a big community, a family of people, and you don't hold your family at arm's length."

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Musical America
February 2016

Jamie Barton is one of the fastest-rising stars in the opera world today, earning rave reviews for her keen musicality and voluptuous, richly colored instrument. The Atlanta-based mezzo-soprano has also become something of an expert on the current competition scene, having ridden a wave of wins. Musical America spoke with Barton on the West Coast in December, where she was singing Adalgisa in Los Angeles Opera’s Norma and making her San Francisco recital debut at San Francisco Performances.

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Operavore
December 2015

Recital: JAMIE BARTON. This was a great year for the art of the song... The prodigiously talented mezzo-soprano is still at the beginning of her career but already deployed a vast range of colors and emotions in a program that confidently included music in many languages, styles and moods.

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The New York Times
September 2015

A leader of a new generation of opera stars at 33, Ms. Barton is a giggly cat-video lover, with a tendency to burp when she’s nervous and the kind of exuberance that leads someone impulsively to get a nose piercing to match her publicist’s. She’s also self-possessed in the midst of a jam-packed schedule, and realistic about her future. “There’s a big part of me that’s inched away from the idea of fame, from being a household name,” she said recently at a Midtown Manhattan cafe, mulling the difficulty of a 21st-century opera singer’s becoming a celebrity like Pavarotti or Sills. But even if mezzos traditionally receive less attention than sopranos or tenors, Ms. Barton has as good a chance at greatness as anyone.

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