Barton had both the singing voice and stage presence – including an unsurpassable witch's cackle – to make the opera's third act an enthralling culmination. She could skip easily and quickly between high-voiced mellifluousness and child-tempting outer facade and her deep-voiced murderous and ravenous true nature.

Barton is a magnificent harpy, cold and frozen as Lake Cocytus in the Inferno. She could be the evil stepmother in a gothic horror, dripping attitude and bereft of any familial feeling. She’s chilling…and delicious.

Barton’s splendid voice and commanding stage presence powerfully brought out Sister Helen’s dogged determination to connect with De Rocher.

Nothing stayed in the background, of course, with the powerful American mezzo Jamie Barton, famous waver of the Pride rainbow flag at the Last Night of the Proms in 2019. Each of her three numbers struck a different musical note.

The soloists sang with freedom, flair and excitement; you could hear them putting their personal stamps on each number. Barton’s swaggering zeal, accompanied by visual imagery from generations of gay protest marches, felt downright inspirational.

Most striking about Barton’s interpretation of the role was the character’s vulnerability, made possible through her soft-pedaling of Amneris’s vicious side. Her Amneris was still spiteful, but one understood her jealousy and outrage more.

Barton brought a terrifically full voice and overflowing heart to Nettie Fowler. 

The heart and soul of the LBO’s performance was Barton. As Mother Earth, she stood at the mandala’s raised center, leading the call-and-response proceedings by voice, meditational cue, and charismatic expressiveness.”

In the hands of Sanikidze, Lipman, and Barton, On Mars was a haunting, ominous and eventually hopeful meditation on the nature of humankind’s uncertain future. Barton was a superb choice for the material.

Barton owns her role with a rare kind of confidence, a kind of here-I-am manner of occupying space that deprives the character of all the ridicule and objectification.