Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton has won some of the biggest voice competitions in the opera world. Still, nothing prepared the listener for the sound of her voice, when she unleashed its full power in a Verdi aria at Cincinnati Opera’s “Opera in the Park” concert last weekend. Even outdoors, the enthusiastic audience seemed to know that this voice was something unusual and very special.
Read MoreBBC Cardiff Singer of the World is generally acknowledged to be the vocal competition to win. As this year's finalists gear up for another thrilling contest, the 2013 winner, mezzo Jamie Barton, offers them valuable advice.
Read MoreIn her home is a new piece of furniture Jamie Barton never imagined she would have. “I do have a trophy case now. It sounds horrible coming out of my mouth, but it’s true,” Barton, the Atlanta-based mezzo-soprano star, said in a visit to “City Lights.” “I am a very lucky girl," she added. On a brief respite from her busy concert schedule, Barton told host Lois Reitzes that her most recent honor, the Richard Tucker Award, carries a special distinction. “It’s different from the other things I’ve been lucky enough to win,” she said. The Richard Tucker Award is referred to as opera’s Heisman Trophy – a reference to the award given to the top player in college football. “If I have an actual trophy I’m going to take a photo me in a Heisman pose,” she said, laughing.
Read MoreJamie Barton is a rising star in the opera world. She’s just 33, but her voice has filled concert halls all over the world. She won both the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition and the prestigious Robert Tucker Award – a $50,000 prize known as the “Heisman trophy of music.” Barton joins host Celeste Headlee to talk about her passion for singing and how she got her start in rural Rome, Georgia.
Read MoreMezzo Jamie Barton has been named as the winner of the 2015 Richard Tucker Award. One of opera’s most prestigious accolades, the award carries a cash prize of $50,000 and is bestowed annually on an American singer deemed to be on the threshold of a major international career by a panel of industry professionals. Previously, Barton was named as the winner of both the Main and Song prizes at the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, and she was also a winner at the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In 2012, the mezzo was a recipient of a Career Grant from the Tucker Foundation, and in 2014, she was named as the recipient of a Marian Anderson Award from the Kennedy Center.
Read MoreThe prize dubbed the Heisman Trophy for singers is going to a Georgia native with an earth-shattering voice — and an earthy style. Announced Sunday, the winner of the 2015 Richard Tucker Award is mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton. The opera star recently appeared barefoot in jeans, giggling and cradling a glass of Oregon wine — offstage, chatting with a friend on YouTube. Onstage in costume, she's being compared to the past century's finest vocalists.
Read MoreThe rich-voiced mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton has been awarded the prestigious Richard Tucker Award, the foundation that administers the award announced on Sunday night. The $50,000 prize, which commemorates Tucker, the great Brooklyn-born tenor, was the latest in a series of accolades for Ms. Barton, a rising star. She previously won both the main prize and the song prize at the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, and was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2007 — a lively competition that was featured in Susan Froemke’s film “The Audition.”
Read MoreMezzo-soprano Jamie Barton has added the 2015 Richard Tucker Award to her trophy case, a $50,000 prize granted annually to an American singer “on the threshold of a major international career.” Actually, Barton, 33, is already well on her way, having been named the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and granted the mantle of “fresh wonder of the opera world” by the ever-influential New Yorker. She is also a winner of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Kennedy Center’s 2014 Marian Anderson Award.
Read MoreIt's understandable that Rome could be an inspiration for an opera singer. That's certainly true for mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, who will give a recital at 8 p.m. Feb. 7 in Mechanics Hall, Worcester, for the Artist Night program presented by Music Worcester Inc. Cardiff, Wales, has also been important for Barton, who won both the Main and the Song Prizes at the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, a biennial event that has helped several winners achieve sustained international success and acclaim in the opera world. But Rome is where the singing started for Barton. The city of Rome, Georgia, that is (population 36,000 approximately), in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains.
Read MoreOn a recent afternoon backstage at Lyric Opera, Sondra Radvanovsky and Jamie Barton were behaving like the gal pals they are, hugging each other and singing each other's praises. Quite the contrast to the emotional sparring partners the singers are playing in Lyric's new production of Gaetano Donizetti's Anna Bolena — the castoff consort Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour, Anne's lady-in-waiting and rival for the affections of the cruel King Henry VIII. Indeed, in conversation, neither the Berwyn-born soprano nor the Georgia-native mezzo-soprano came across as your standard-issue diva, however imperious they behave in the long-awaited Lyric return of Donizetti's bel canto masterpiece, which opens Saturday night at the Civic Opera House.
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