She waved the Pride flag at the Last Night of the Proms and sang in a gender-fluid Carmen. Now the mezzo-soprano is on a mission to take toxic masculinity out of opera
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the classical
music world fell in love with Jamie Barton. Perhaps it was the 2013 Cardiff
Singer of the World competition, when as an up-and-coming mezzo-soprano from Rome, Georgia, she carried off both first prize and the song prize – the first woman to do so. It was certainly a full-blown affair by the time of the 2019 Last Night of the Proms, when, dressed in the blue, pink and purple of the bisexual pride flag, she gleefully brandished a rainbow flag on stage as she sang Rule, Britannia!. And to be in her Wigmore Hall recital that autumn was to witness an audience reaction inspired not by mere affection or respect, but by actual love.
Now, it’s the morning of
Thanksgiving, and while her family back home in the US are preparing to celebrate, she is getting over jetlag in an apartment in Amsterdam. This year, she wouldn’t have it any other way – as for so many of her colleagues in the music world, the chance to work internationally again is worthy of its own celebration.