Léonor in LA FAVORITE

Houston Grand Opera

“Unquestionably on the cusp of international stardom, mezzo Barton has a voice for the ages. Deep-dish and exceptionally plummy, her voice has power to spare and expression for days. I swear, at times, she hit notes lower than baritone Imbrailo and soared higher than soprano Elena Villalón. She is a force of nature, and if you saw her in HGO's Ring cycle, as a strikingly potent Waltraute in Gotterdammerung or haughty Fricka in Das Rheingold and Die Walkure, you've never forgotten her. In decades to come, you can tell those less fortunate that you heard Barton at the beginning… This opera becomes necessary when singers can sing it. Barton can sing it.”
–D.L. Groover, Houston Press

“A stunning performance whose high point was Barton’s performance of ‘O mon Fernand,’ which stopped the show when the astonished audience poured out its appreciation as she finished her cabaletta. The foundation of Barton’s success was her do-anything voice: whatever the moment required – searing agony or silken romance, soulful despair or brilliant triumph – her singing realized the full spectrum of Leonor’s emotions in vivid and realistic detail… Barton’s voice was transcendent in its richness and depth throughout her range and was remarkable for its sheer power: she seemed not to have a single weak note in her impressive range, and she could make herself heard even over the full chorus and orchestra.”
–Gregory Barnett, Opera News

“Barton sang with rich, round tone and tapered her powerful, wide-ranging mezzo-soprano for some lovely diminuendos and pianissimos. Like her colleagues, she threw in an extra high note here and a modest embellishment there and acted with dignity and poise, no mean feat…”
–William Albright, Opera Magazine

“Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton added richness and power to Houston Grand Opera productions long before Gaetano Donizetti’s La Favorite opened Friday in Wortham Theater Center. In HGO’s 2015 staging of Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre, she gave Fricka — the god Wotan’s aggrieved wife — a stature befitting Valhalla’s guardian of laws. Barton in 2018 brought emotional intensity and bel canto glow to the role of Adalgisa, the heroine’s rival-turned-friend, in Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma.

But those formidable portrayals didn’t foretell the vocal and dramatic volcano Barton would unleash Friday, when she herself played the heroine: Favorite’s tormented Léonor… During the first two acts, as Léonor’s stresses compounded, Barton’s singing captured all the crosscurrents between passion, foreboding and despair.  Barton spun out Donizetti’s melodies with a suppleness and shapeliness that radiated emotion bel canto-style. When the vocal line plunged to evoke Léonor’s fears of doom, Barton’s voice boomed like a contralto’s; when anguish bubbled up, Léonor’s outcries came out as walloping high notes.

But the climax came in Act 3, with Léonor’s aria “O mon Fernand.” At first, it was flowing and almost understated, with Barton’s sweetness conjuring up the affection that Léonor still felt for her paramour. But at the aria’s first mention of the affair’s inevitable doom, Barton’s voice again dove and thundered. And from there, more and more fervor gripped her singing. It grew more vibrant and full-throated, and in the faster-paced cabaletta, sheer abandon took over: Barton filled the music with swaggering energy, bold attacks and cri de coeur flourishes that vaulted from her voice’s highest range to its lowest — exerting a visceral impact at both ends. It all added up to what was probably the most arresting individual scene in an HGO production in recent years.

Barton didn’t let the fourth and last act turn into an anticlimax, though. With Léonor reduced to despair by a public condemnation and beating, Barton gave the final scene — a reconciliation with Fernand that comes too late — an electricity of its own. Her voice sounded even fuller and darker than before, and it let her fill Donizetti’s melodies with the weight of heavy-heartedness.

…The generic visual elements hardly mattered when Barton was onstage. Her singing illustrated everything.”
–Steven Brown, Texas Classical Review

“The opera proved a triumph for Jamie Barton, singing the role of Léonor de Guzman, revealing Barton’s rich lower register, bright top and coloratura virtuosity. Léonor’s poignant aria O mon fernand was an impressive performance of bel canto singing, both expressive and emotionally affecting. The Houston audience responded with an exuberant, sustained ovation.”
–William Burnett, Opera Warhorses

“As usual in opera performances from this era, HGO’s production transcends the material. Barton, an internationally renowned mezzo-soprano, is stunning in the title role. Her powerful instrument fills the hall with richness and beauty, and her use of chest voice is wonderfully aggressive. After Barton’s emotional performance of the demanding “O mon Fernand” in the third act, the audience gave her the longest and loudest ovation I have heard after an aria in the last five years of attending HGO productions. Aside from her masterful singing, Barton is a skilled actress. One of the most striking moments in the production was Léonor’s slow, pained exit from the stage after being brutalized by the knights. Barton’s hushed crying communicated more about her profound loss than most of the arias in the final act.”
–Michael Clark, Houstonia Magazine

“Jamie Barton’s elemental performance easily renders any dramaturgic qualms about the show moot. As Léonor, the HGO Studio alum infuses the role with a tinge of haughtiness and a tidal wave of passion. Her formidable mezzo-soprano thrums with power, and Barton’s coloratura — those showy vocal embellishments so indicative of opera — can induce chills. Beyond her vocal might, however, Barton handily negotiates the complex array of emotions required to play Léonor… Her intensity provoked a prolonged wave of applause that felt as astonished as it did appreciative.”
–Chris Gray, Houston Chronicle