Fricka in DIE WALKÜRE

San Francisco Opera

“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.”
–Clive Paget, Limelight Magazine

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

"The gods, in their new and luxurious accomodations, have been formidable. In my review of Das Rheingold, I pointed out that Jamie Barton's Fricka would surely be a force of nature in Die Walküre. So it has been, in an overwhelming interpretation that confronts the role with apparent ease and lustrous depth. Seeing her, it is more than clear why Wotan loses the argument... Her last phrases in "Das kann mein Gatte nicht wollen, die Göttin entweiht er nicht so!", In which she says that her husband could not desecrate her in that way (defending Siegmund), were particularly impressive."
–David Yllanes Mosquera, Codalario

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

“Grimsley’s Wotan spared intensively with Jamie Barton’s Fricka. She won over the audience with her defense of marriage against the incestuous love of the siblings, forcefully dismissing Wotan’s arguments, and disdainfully tearing the photo Siegmund in half. Barton’s clear, powerfully emotional voice and acting set a new standard for Fricka interpreters.”
–James Bash, Northwest Reverb

“Jamie Barton was a terrific, formidable Fricka, rolling her Rs with relish as she laid down the law.”
–Richard S. Ginell, Classical Voice North America

“As Fricka, Jamie Barton berated Wotan with cutting sound and crunchy low notes.”
–Ilana Walder-Biesanz, Bachtrack

“Georgia mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton was another welcome addition to the stellar cast as Fricka, the character who, taking a stand on principal, completely changes the course of the story. The “Ring” story works best, when Fricka in Walküre is dramatically persuasive. I found Barton’s portrayal to be completely convincing. I described Barton’s “lusciously rich, warm voice” in my review of her Rheingold Fricka, a woman (albeit a goddess) not yet sure of her place in the world of the gods. As the Walküre Fricka, 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.”
–William Burnett, Opera Warhorses

“Barton remained an audience favorite despite the unlikeable aspects of the role, her previous anxiety over the shame visited on her sister Freia now replaced by haughty certainty of the unassailability of her moral position. Barton couched all this in passionate phrasing that intensified Fricka’s stature.
–Thomas May, Musical America

“Jamie Barton, as Fricka, 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.”
–Brian Holt, Out West Arts

“Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton was a molten-voiced goddess of marriage, determined to uphold the tradition, as Wotan’s wife Fricka.”
–James Ambroff-Tahan, SF Examiner

"In Die Walküre women’s voices dominated the luscious sound; first, with Mattila’s exquisite purity, then with Jamie Barton’s magisterial Fricka."
–Jaime Robles, Repeat Performances

“Mezzo Jamie 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.”
–Lisa Hirsch, San Francisco Classical Voice

“Someone, of course, needs to register qualms about the whole incestuous adultery thing, and traditional morality could have no more eloquent a champion than mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, whose Fricka was a dynamo of implacable reasoning delivered in lusty, full-throated tones.”
–Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle