The heart and soul of the LBO’s performance was Barton. As Mother Earth, she stood at the mandala’s raised center, leading the call-and-response proceedings by voice, meditational cue, and charismatic expressiveness.”

In the hands of Sanikidze, Lipman, and Barton, On Mars was a haunting, ominous and eventually hopeful meditation on the nature of humankind’s uncertain future. Barton was a superb choice for the material.

Barton owns her role with a rare kind of confidence, a kind of here-I-am manner of occupying space that deprives the character of all the ridicule and objectification.

Barton delivered one of the most artistically superb performances one has seen at the Met these past several seasons. Her singing was show-stopping and by far the most successful part of the evening.

With the majestic pull of her boundless alto voice, Jamie Barton - after Tove's death - turned the song of the wood dove into a magical dirge.

Barton was absolutely wonderfully in sync with the music and orchestra. There are many recordings of ‘Das Lied’ and many singers are famous in that regard, from Kathleen Ferrier to Christa Ludwig. Jamie Barton slipped right into the ranks of the best singers of all time.

Jamie Barton, the force-of-nature American mezzo-soprano, was the soloist: her coppery voice, too, is a giant instrument, but she wielded it with minute attention to diction and meaning.

Barton has solidified her status as one of the most distinctive voices in the opera world... A reminder of what makes Barton’s sound unique: a rare plushness and consistency of tone, a sense of effortless vocal power, and an upper extension that can thrillingly maintain the color and depth of the middle voice.

As is often the case in these Gurre-Lieder, the mezzo steals the show. Barton has the privilege of serving one of the peaks of the work. Above all, she has superb projection which allows her to find superb phrasing.

In her climactic scene, Barton cuts loose both vocally and dramatically, giving full vent and desperation to Amneris’s jealousy and self-recrimination.