Sister Helen in DEAD MAN WALKING

San Francisco Opera

“Barton is at her strongest on exquisitely delicate crescendoes and decrescendoes, mining the boundary between sound and silence like a tireless explorer who always sees farther than you can.” 
–San Francisco Chronicle

“Barton’s take on the role is honest and straightforward, almost demure in places. Sister Helen’s plaintive ‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,’ in her gentle reading of the line, is so devastating to watch because it’s a moment where performance stops. She inhabits the role of a nun without any hard-edged cliches or syrupy, elementary-school-teacher fakery. That refusal to suck the air out of the room made her confrontation with the victims’ parents that much more heartbreaking. Barton was no diva fending off vicious attacks. She was contrite, trying to figure out what she was even doing there in the first place. It wasn’t her scene, it belonged to the victims. Not many singers would give that space to other singers. Her stage presence is winning. We need to trust Sister Helen. And we do.”
–Parterre Box

“Sister Helen is Jamie Barton, in a gorgeous performance marked by vulnerability and wit.”
–Musical America

“The fine young mezzo Barton captures the nun’s gentility and complex reactions with a mellow and nuanced voice as she fights revulsion in trying to induce Joseph to confess and seek forgiveness.  Her dedication to her calling is revealed in the recurring hymn-like ‘He will gather us around,’ and she realizes the watershed she faces in the reflective ‘This journey.’  But the journey is not only thankless, she is vilified by the victims’ parents, the warden, and even the prison priest.”
–Berkshire Fine Arts

“When Barton and Brittany Renee, as Sister Rose, sing in duet, something special enters the air.”
–KQED

“Barton’s vocal performance as Prejean was powerful – more than the legal and ethical questions concerning America’s incarceration system, Prejean’s story also addresses just how personal working with inmates can become. As the victims’ parents recall their murdered children and express their repulsion at Prejean aiding De Rocher instead of them, their outrage is palpable in the auditorium.”
–The Daily Californian

“Barton gives a wonderfully multi-faceted performance. The moment when Joe asks Sister Prejean, and really himself, if he can trust her is a fusion of music and words so heartbreaking and redemptive and painful that I found my eyes overflowing with joy and sorrow and sheer awe at what art can do.”
–Kamiya Unlimited

“With the opera tracking Sister Helen's growing but conflicted commitment to the killer as she became his spiritual adviser, a series of duets set McKinny's growling bass-baritone against Barton's mezzo-soprano. The terms of these encounters were musically set and developed. In one choice scene, Barton and McKinny got into bed on opposite sides of the stage, she in Sister Helen's Catholic community, he in De Rocher's cell. Visually and musically, the yearning, sorrowful duet captured both their closeness and their distance – and even a parallel in their regimented lives. There was room for humour, too, when Barton shimmied to a recollection of an Elvis Presley concert to dent the convict's thick resistant shell. She also parried with a motorcycle cop who stopped her for speeding.”
Opera Magazine

“The brilliant Barton sang Sister Helen with moving and penetrating thoughtfulness and humanity. From the outset, she sang with a focus that emphasized her struggle about meeting a criminal on death row and her own conflicts about capital punishment. She kept this stance throughout. She showed her deeply suffering side and her religious conviction. The beauty and power of her voice kept the story vibrant and deeply evocative. What was particularly gripping in Barton’s performance was her thoughtfulness with Joseph, her constancy, her stability and her commitment to the love she bore him and which evoked from him at the end. No sentimentality here, just steady, present love. It was extremely touching.”
–OperaWire

“Dead Man Walking grabs you by the heart. San Francisco Opera’s production maximizes its emotional impact with a first-rate cast and lavish production values. Barton sings the daunting role of Sister Helen — she’s onstage almost the entire opera — but Barton’s splendid voice and commanding stage presence powerfully brought out Sister Helen’s dogged determination to connect with De Rocher.”
–San Francisco Classical Voice