Heidi Melton's Valhallantines for the New York Phil
Heidi Melton turned Wagnerian wit into Valhallantines for the New York Phil's Instagram account.
February 14, 2018
In collaboration with Verismo, soprano Heidi Melton created a series of #Valhallantine posts for her takeover of the New York Philharmonic's Instagram account on Valentine's Day.
In honor of epic and awkward romances, The Ring Cycle-themed poems ranged from limericks and haiku to "roses are red" verses, utilizing Melton's deep knowledge of the Wagnerian repertoire.
Melton's performance as Sieglinde that evening earned critical notice, with The New York Times praising her as "a radiant soprano... Singing with bloom and richness, Ms. Melton was a tender, vulnerable Sieglinde.” Bachtrack was impressed by her "warm and gleaming voice...acted with insight and wisdom," while the New York Classical Review raved, "Soprano Heidi Melton proved nearly ideal as Sieglinde. She brought a rich voice to the role, showing smooth tenderness through most of the act, but was capable of thrilling energy, as well."
Learn more about Heidi Melton >
Jamie Barton's Recital Tour Starts with A Bang in Boston, New York
“The kind of singer that changes the way we think about mezzos in this century…the kind of singer who brings us back to other centuries. The voice itself is, of course, a marvel. Rich and sonorous, but also vulnerable, it seems to emerge from the depths of the lower abdomen, as though lungs could start where legs ended, with tone shooting up from the floor.” Jamie Barton and pianist Kathleen Kelly kick off their recital tour to rapturous acclaim in Boston and New York.
December 18, 2017
Photo by Richard Termine
Mezzo Jamie Barton kicks off a recital tour with pianist Kathleen Kelly with her Celebrity Series Boston debut and a return to Carnegie Hall.
Read reviews:
“A thoughtful and deeply satisfying program."
The New York Times
"Barton is a wonderful recitalist, and this was a terrific program. Barton doesn’t color text—she embodies it. Her acting is powerful but finely judged: every word is alive and specific, but never floats entirely free of real speech. By the same token, her diction is so magnificent, and her projection of it so finely calibrated to the hall, that after a while you just stop looking at the printed texts. Her final exploratory “Mmmmm,” in “Boys Lips” was an erotic education all by itself. Her “But oh, oh, insomniac moonlight,/How unhoneyed is my middle of the night,” in “The Empty Song,” found a balance of voluptuous pain and wry self-mockery that’s precisely right for a song that’s sparked by an empty shampoo-bottle. And anyone who can get seven distinct, hearty laughs out of a mere fourteen lines of text, plus applause and bravos in the middle of a group, as Barton did with “Big Sister Says,” is assuredly cooking with gas."
ZEALnyc
"I've always wondered what it would be like to swim in a pool of maple syrup – and now I know. From the minute Ms. Barton opened her mouth, she unleashed a rolling tone that poured over her audience, soaking them in the sugary, maple tones of her delicious mezzo. We were drenched – but in the way an idyllic bite of pancake is drenched."
Broadway World Opera
“The kind of singer that changes the way we think about mezzos in this century…the kind of singer who brings us back to other centuries. The voice itself is, of course, a marvel. Rich and sonorous, but also vulnerable, it seems to emerge from the depths of the lower abdomen, as though lungs could start where legs ended, with tone shooting up from the floor.”
Parterre Box
"It’s easy to hear why Barton has become so popular, for the singer has a voice of remarkable power and depth. Barton brought lyrical grace and zeal to a wide-ranging program of songs by French, German, Austrian, and American composers. Barton’s singing is dark, yet radiant with a voice that is smooth in all registers. Given her operatic experience, particularly in Wagnerian roles, her singing also has weight and gravity. Her high notes, too, rang like a bell. But Barton’s greatest strength lies in her ability to tell stories through music. With searching intensity that found the wide emotional range of each song she sang, Barton performed as if each piece were a miniature drama. Stories, it was revealed, are best told through song."
Boston Classical Review
"Along with the extraordinary power of her voice, Barton’s luminous smile won me over before she sang a note. Barton’s radiant joy in performing was obvious. as was the special synergy she shared with her excellent pianist, Kathleen Kelly. The other surprising thing was the originality of the program, which included music very few in the audience had heard. The truth is, even without Barton’s keen musical intelligence – and that radiant voice – this song recital would have been worth hearing because of her wonderfully imaginative choice of music... I suspected I was enjoying the loveliest thing I’ll hear this holiday season."
The Arts Fuse
Barton's Role Debut as Jezibaba Bewitches Audiences
"It’s hard to find adjectives superlative enough to describe her voice: huge and sumptuous, but with such broad possibilities of color that the singer can chill the blood with just a glint of steel in the tone. Lurching, heaving and writhing nonstop, she looked as if she might any moment explode out of sheer malevolence." Jamie Barton returns to the Metropolitan Opera in a new production of Rusalka.
February 4, 2017
Mezzo Jamie Barton, fresh from being named winner of the 2017 Beverly Sills Artist Award, makes her role debut as Jezibaba in a new production of Rusalka at the Metropolitan Opera.
Directed by Mary Zimmerman and conducted by Mark Elder, Dvorak's Czech fairy tale stars Kristine Opolais in the title role, Brandon Jovanovich as the Prince, and Eric Owens as the Water Sprite.
Performances run through March 2, and tickets can be purchased via the Met website. The February 25 performance will be streamed live in cinemas worldwide via the Met's Live in HD program.
Read reviews:
“What makes this show bearable, if not indeed indispensable, is the presence of the magnificent mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton as Jezibaba. It’s hard to find adjectives superlative enough to describe her voice: huge and sumptuous, but with such broad possibilities of color that the singer can chill the blood with just a glint of steel in the tone. Though I didn’t care for the jokey take on the character Zimmerman imposed on her, I was flabbergasted at how passionately Barton threw herself into the performance. Lurching, heaving and writhing nonstop, she looked as if she might any moment explode out of sheer malevolence. If everyone involved in this Rusalka were operating at Barton’s level, the Met would have its biggest hit of the decade. As it is, the company might be better off condensing the opera to a single hour-long act called Hello, Jezibaba!”
New York Observer
“The real marvel of the cast was Jamie Barton, who was absolutely sensational as the sorceress Ježibaba. Her voice was a wonder in itself, a full, shady mezzo with harrowing power, and fierce fire in her chest. Of everyone in the cast, she had the most success in navigating the cartoonish aesthetic of the production, hamming it up just enough to embrace the comic elements of the role, but never forgetting its essential darkness. Barton brings tremendous presence to the stage, coupled here with a specific and deliciously wicked vocal characterization.”
New York Classical Review
"As Jezibaba, Jamie Barton, in a wonderful spiderweb dress, blended comedy and cruelty, her pungent mezzo taking on a fierce brightness."
Wall Street Journal
“Barton is a lot of fun here. Her low mezzo is irresistibly rich and colorful, epic in size and effortless. (I’ve seen a lot of Rusalkas and hence a lot of Jezibabas and she is the best by a large margin.) She also shows real comic flair in a villain mode.”
Likely Impossibilities
“Jamie Barton, a recent winner of the Beverly Sills Artist Award, is a delightfully campy villain as the witch Jezibaba. Her meaty mezzo is wonderfully deployed, especially during the transformation set piece, in which Zimmerman likens Rusalka’s metamorphosis to a surgical intervention. The only drawback is the role’s brevity in a rather long evening, leaving the audience craving more of Barton’s superlative work.”
Parterre Box
“Barton, a mezzo from Georgia who is becoming a Met mainstay, is wickedly devious as Jezibaba.”
Huffington Post
“Jamie Barton as Ježibaba was gloriously demented as the wily witch. She gets to play some delicious comedy and sings with such skill, you feel like she is really capable of casting spells with sound.”
NY Theatre Guide
"Jamie Barton’s devilish Ježibaba was the highlight. Surrounded by half-human/half-animal henchmen, Barton brought such electric charisma that it was hard not to find affection for the wily sorceress."
Classical Source
"The extraordinary Jamie Barton is the vocal star of this production and outshines even Eric Owens, just as she outshone Plácido Domingo in the Met’s Nabucco this winter. Barton and her critters are terrifying: Her cackle froze the auditorium’s giblets."
New Republic
“As the crusty witch Jezibaba, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton dug into her lower range with some dramatically appropriate guttural effects, but more than her predecessor Dolora Zajick, maintained grace and musicality no matter how nasty her sentiments.”
Operavore
Jamie Barton to Star in Two Metropolitan Opera Productions in 2016/17
Jamie Barton will debut as Jezibaba in an imaginative new Mary Zimmerman production of Dvorak's Rusalka and bring her celebrated Fenena to the Met stage alongside Plácido Domingo as the title character in Nabucco. Both productions will be Met Live in HD broadcasts in cinemas worldwide.
February 17, 2016
Photo by Elise Bakketun
““Jamie Barton is dazzling as Fenena, with a showstopper Act IV aria that displayed the lyricism and agility of this remarkable voice.”
SEATTLE TIMES”
Jamie Barton will return to the Metropolitan Opera for two productions in the 2016/17 season; both will be transmitted live to cinemas worldwide via Met Live in HD.
Barton will make her role debut as Ježibaba in a new Mary Zimmerman production of Rusalka, alongside Kristine Opolais in the title role, Brandon Jovanovich as the Prince, and Eric Owens as the Water Sprite, under the baton of Mark Elder. Performances will run Feb 2 – Mar 2, 2017.
Barton will also bring her celebrated Fenena to the Met stage for Nabucco, opposite Plácido Domingo and Željko Lučić in the title role, with James Levine conducting. The cast also features Liudmyla Monastyrska as Abigaille, Russell Thomas as Ismaele, and Dimitry Belosselskiy as Zaccaria. Performances will run Dec 12, 2016 – Jan 7, 2017.
Tickets for both productions are available via the Met site.
Amanda Majeski to Return to Metropolitan Opera in 2016/17
Amanda Majeski will make her house role debut as Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni.
February 17, 2016
Photo by Kelly and Massa Photography
Amanda Majeski will return to the Metropolitan Opera in the 2016/17 season in her house debut as Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni.
Majeski's Elvira has been praised for her "wonderful vocal and psychological specificity" (Philadelphia Inquirer) and deemed "a revelation. A strange figure, Donna Elvira, but made human by Majeski's devastating rendition of her plight." (Broadway World)
Fabio Luisi will conduct performances on November 1, 4, and 10, 2016, also starring Ildar Abdrazakov in the title role, Matthew Rose as Leporello, Malin Byström as Donna Anna, Ramón Vargas as Don Ottavio, Nadine Sierra as Zerlina, and Adam Plachetka as Masetto.
Amanda will also perform as part of the 50th Anniversary Gala, celebrating the Met's golden anniversary in its home in Lincoln Center. Tickets are available through the Met website.