Fricka in DAS RHEINGOLD

The Metropolitan Opera

“An unusually lustrous-toned and feminine Fricka.”
–Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times

“Jamie Barton’s rich, powerful mezzo-soprano made her a superb Fricka, with a meaty quality in her chest voice and burning vitality throughout. Her characterization was a perfect mix of pride, grief, and exasperation, betraying her frustration at her husband Wotan through the ferociousness of her singing.”
–Eric C. Simpson, New York Classical Review

“Jamie Barton was a potent presence as Fricka... While she displayed considerable vulnerability (her delicate and expansive singing on “verspielst du in lästerndem Spott Liebe und Weibes Werth?” was heartbreaking and really honed in the core pain in Fricka’s life), she was also assertive in confronting Wotan. Through her character, we were able to understand Wotan’s greatest failing – his inability to see his own missteps.”
–David Salazar, Opera Wire

“His ever-suffering wife Fricka was the smooth-as-velvet mezzo, Jamie Barton, in her Wagner debut at the house, as the goddess of marriage.”
–Richard Sasanow, Broadway World

“The mezzo of Jamie Barton, not so much dramatic as vastly lyric, made the goddess Fricka’s virtues of monogamy and chastity sound downright seductive.”
–James Jorden, New York Observer

“Barton’s voice is added to the Wagnerian orchestra with a special spell, like another instrument.”
–Carlos Javier Lopez, Opera World

“Grimsley was well matched with Jamie Barton’s sensitive, feminist Fricka. Ms. Barton sang with a bottomless reservoir of tone. She balanced tenderness and the frustration of being Wotan’s wife, who probably wishes her husband had never gone into politics.”
–Paul J. Pelkonen, Superconductor

“The opera calls for an enormous orchestra that fills the Met’s large room with vibrant sound. All the singers were well suited to their demanding roles. Particularly outstanding vocals were delivered by Jamie Barton…”
–John Sherer, Hyperallergic

“The best part of this Ring was the cast, which was outstanding. Das Rheingold was most notable for the Fricka of mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton…”
–Sarah Bryan Miller, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“That person-to-person drama was palpable from practically the beginning, as Michael Volle’s already world-weary, aging patriarch of a Wotan confronted Jamie Barton’s fervent Fricka in Das Rheingold, and they actually seemed to be listening to one another.”
–Zachary Woolfe, The New York Times