OPERA
Once in Love with Jamie
Mezzo-soprano Barton claims center stage with pride
BY ELI JACOBSON
Mezzo-soprano Jamie
Barton came out as
bisexual on Twitter
in 2014 and has been
an outspoken member/ ally of the
LGBTQ community ever since. At
the 2019 Last Night of the Proms
in London, Barton walked out
singing “Rule Britannia” carrying
the Rainbow Flag rather than the
Union Jack. At the Proms, she also
wore a specially designed dress inspired
by the Bisexual Pride Flag,
which she also modeled — to an
audience ovation — at the 2019
Richard Tucker Gala at Carnegie
Hall on Sunday October 27.
Yet oddly enough for an enthusiastic
fan of drag queens and
cross-dressers, Barton has never
played a trouser role — until this
season’s Metrevival of Gluck’s “Orfeo
ed Euridice”. With a side shave
and pompadour, the unashamedly
plus-size Barton made a very convincingly
masculine Greek musician
and poet in Mark Morris’ artistically
uneven 2007 production.
As always, it’s the Barton voice
that takes center stage. Equal
parts mellow richness and brilliant
thrust, her vibrant mezzo balances
the lyrical and dramatic. In
Orfeo’s opening lament “Chiamo il
mio ben,” I felt that Barton (abetted
by conductor Mark Wigglesworth)
needed to more strongly contrast
the desperation of the recitatives
with the melancholy lyricism of the
three repeated verses. The whole
thing sounded one-note — elegiac
sadness — and Barton also fell
short in the low contralto register.
From that point on, she built from
➤ CARLYLE HILLBILLY, from p.30
sang and bantered with her veteran
musician husband, Cactus Moser.
She reminisced about the kind
of insecure, fi sh-out-of-water hell it
was to be the bigger, nonconformist
odd girl out (“who never saw difference,
every race, every gay were
my friends in school”) alongside
those pretty princesses, Mama
Hei-Kyung Hong and Jamie Barton in the Mark Morris production of Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice.”
strength to strength, culminating
in a richly expressive rendition
of Orfeo’s famous lament “Che
farò senza Euridice?” with tasteful
variations in the repeats. The
restrained emotional power and
eloquence of her singing matched
with her imposing presence created
a powerful center to Morris’
unfocused production.
Morris banishes the chorus,
dressed as historical fi gures from
different centuries, to mobile, multitiered,
semi-circular choir stalls
upstage where they are separated
from the action (though they occasionally
mimic Orfeo’s gestures to
fussy and irrelevant effect). Their
place onstage is taken by dancers
Naomi and sister Ashley. And she
just kept gasping with astonishment
at the unlikely fact of “these
hillbillies, playin’ the Carlyle.”
“We wanted to do something
different in this so-called fancy
cabaret world,” she admitted. “I’m
not sure how we were gonna, but I
wanted this to be less formal, more
comfortable, and all about the music
and my stories. Because you see
KEN HOWARD/ METROPOLITAN OPERA
in casual contemporary clothing
performing Morris’ lackluster choreography.
The musical acuity and
inventive visuals of Morris’ triumphant
1988 choreographic version
of Handel’s cantata “L’Allegro, il
Penseroso ed il Moderato” are entirely
absent here. The drab choreography
seems to be mere fi ller,
something that takes up space
and time rather than fi lling the
stage with expressive movement
and suspending time.
The Metropolitan Opera is currently
using Gluck’s spare 1762
original version without the chorus
of Blessed Spirits or the other additions
Gluck and Berlioz introduced
into their Paris revisions. The
I’m still that little girl, trying to fi t
in somehow, as Mr. Johnny Cash
walks in and says, ‘How are you
Wynonna?’ Wynonna? And he was
always Mr. Cash, never Johnny. I
mean I got to meet George Jones,
Loretta!”
When she fi nished this unrehearsed,
altogether wondrous, and
loosey-goosiest set I’ve ever experienced
in any venue, I turned to my
Met’s musical standards are high:
British maestro Wigglesworth conducts
Gluck’s score with a keen ear
for inner voices and precise details
superbly realized by the Metropolitan
Opera Orchestra and Chorus.
As Euridice, veteran soprano
Hei-Kyung Hong (in her 35th season
with the Metropolitan Opera)
still possesses ageless beauty and
strikingly pure tones. Her soprano
has lost some of its creamy core
and power and the lower range
can be inaudible. Yet the disembodied
color of Hong’s still-steady
tone and her uncanny combination
of visual youthfulness with an
older soul within embodied a spirit
caught between life and death.
As Amore, Hera Hyesang Park, a
recent graduate of the Lindemann
Young Artist Program, radiated
androgynous charm in her pink
T-shirt, chinos, and sneakers. Descending
from the fl ies on wires
like a baroque deus ex machina,
Park spread sunshine onstage. Her
sparky light coloratura had color
and body as well as brilliance.
On October 27, Barton also
brought down the house singing
Eboli’s “Veil Song” and “O Don
Fatale” at the Tucker Gala while
modeling two eye-catching custom
made evening gowns, including
the metallic gray dress with
the rainbow lined cape.
The audience greeted Barton
with whoops and cheers like she
was both a familiar old friend
and an exciting superstar. Having
come out as bisexual, Barton
is still coming into her own as an
artist with each performance revealing
a new potential.
date and said, “It’s all about being
real with her.”
Not two seconds later what
should I hear, but her voice, telling
an ecstatic fan, four feet away from
us, “I’m just real.”
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