San Francisco Performances Presents Mezzo-Soprano Jamie Barton
On Wednesday evening, December 16, Jamie Barton was featured in a concert at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Coming off her recent success as Adalgisa in Bellini’s Norma last year at San Francisco Opera, a role she also sang recently in her debut at the Met, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton was accompanied by pianist Robert Mollicone and, in a new work by Jake Heggie, was joined by cellist Emil Miland. Barton opened the program with Homenaje a Lope de Vega by Spanish composer Joaquin Turina. These are three brief songs set to poems by Lope de Vega, all three dealing with the intensity of love and sexual desire. Singing in excellent Spanish, Jamie Barton imbued these songs with ardor and longing, especially in the third and final song, Al val de Fuente Ovejuna/To the Fuente Ovejuna Valley, which ends with the oft-repeated bold refrain, “My desire can find a way through walls.” Barton’s lush tone and impressive vocal power were perfectly matched with the pianistic power and sensitivity of her accompanist Robert Mollicone. -more-
