Barton’s sumptuous mezzo made for a rich, expressive Carmen she played the role with a direct, I-take-what-I-want attitude rather than as a seductress.” Barton, who has publicly condemned body-shaming and celebrated her queer identity, was ready to demonstrate that when it comes to singing, size shouldn’t matter. The orchestra executed the iconic Habanera with both power and great sensitivity to Barton’s musical artistry, giving her room to fully embody Carmen’s fiery spark and playfulness.” “Carmen entered not in the iconic red dress, but instead sporting a black leather jacket, slacks, and a fiery attitude to match. –Patrick O’Brien, Chicagoland Musical Theatre If opera is to live, let this expansion and experimentation of roles blossom into a fuller reality.” Who needs ‘em with this power couple? Jamie Barton’s hard-to-get Carmen is an equal match for Oratonio. “That Red Dress, pointedly, hangs off to the side, never worn. She also invested Carmen with a physical animation and spark…” Vocally, she was marvelously changeable, from seductive kitten to baleful harbinger of death. From the start, with her sinuous Habanera, the explicit essence of the rebellious bird, Barton gave a performance to remember. “The two mezzo-sopranos sustained a doomed romance at a compelling level. The audience roared its approval throughout the evening.” But when she and José fought, her ringing top notes and furious leaps and plunges whipped the air like a merciless winter wind… COT’s Carmen was a triumph for everyone involved. Flirting with Don José in Act I, she turned the Habanera into a quietly mesmerizing master class in seduction, her sultry low notes lingering in the air like fragrant cigarette smoke. Her voice was an intricately deployed combination of fire and ice. Confidently sauntering the stage, taking the measure of the men around her with a subtly skeptical, amused gaze, she was a woman in full. It’s hard to believe that Barton was making her role debut as Carmen.

Propelled by glorious, insightful singing…the performance went far beyond the conventional binaries. “A seriously intense, stunningly sung Carmen, a deep exploration of sexual passion, jealousy, and human frailty.

Carmen opera in theaters