© Benjamin Ealovega
CLAIRE BARNETT-JONES
MEZZO-SOPRANO
British mezzo-soprano Claire Barnett-Jones was a Finalist and Winner of the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2021. Recent highlights include her role and house debut as Madame Flora The Medium for Oper Frankfurt, singing the role of Dryad in concert performances of Ariadne auf Naxos at the Edinburgh International Festival, and her European concert debut at The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethe’s Faust, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
Claire opens her 2021-22 season singing the role of Sosostris in Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the Baton of Edward Gardner at the Royal Festival Hall, London. Currently an English National Opera Harewood Artist, she also sings Rossweisse/cover Fricka in Die Valkyrie; the beginning of a new Ring Cycle at ENO, directed by Richard Jones.
News
Claire Barnett-Jones in ENO Ring Cycle
Claire Barnett-Jones joins English National Opera's upcoming production of The Valkyrie as part of a five year collaboration which will see all four parts of Wagner's Ring cycle staged at the London Coliseum, as a co-production with Metropolitan Opera, New York.
The production will be conducted by ENO's Music Director Martyn Brabbins, and directed by Richard Jones, who returns following his Olivier Award-winning staging of The Mastersingers of Nuremberg. The cast includes Matthew Rose as Wotan, Rachel Nicholls as Brünnhilde, Nicky Spence as Siegmund, Emma Bell as Sieglinde, Brindley Sherratt as Hunding, and Susan Bickley as Fricka.
The Valkyrie opens on Friday 19th November, with further performances on 22, 25, 28 November and 1, 4, 7, 10 December. Following her performances at ENO, this Christmas Claire sings Handel's Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall, alongside the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sian Edwards.
Further information can be found on the ENO website here.
Posted 18/11/2021.
Media
Video
Audio
Repertoire Includes
OPERA
BERKELEY
A Dinner Engagement (HRH The Grand Duchess of Monteblanco)
BIRTWISTLE
Mask of Orpheus (Eurydice Myth/Persephone)
G CHARPENTIER
Louise (Gertrude/La Bayleuse,)
DVORAK
Rusalka (Jezibaba)
HUMPERDINCK
Hansel und Gretel (Hexe/Mother)
JANACEK
Cunning Little Vixen (Mrs Paskova/Innkeepers Wife/Lapak the Dog)
MONTEVERDI
L'incoronazione di Poppea (Ottavia)
MOZART
Le Nozze di Figaro (Marcellina)
PUCCINI
Suor Angelica (La Zia Principessa)
Gianni Schicchi (Zita)
Madama Butterfly (Suzuki)
PURCELL
Dido and Aeneas (Dido, Sorceress)
RIMSKY KORSAKOV
May Night (Sister in Law)
STOCKHAUSEN
Mittwoch Aus Licht, Welt Parliament (Alto 1)
STRAUSS
Ariadne auf Naxos (Dryad)
Der Rosenkavalier (Annina/2nd Noble Orphan)
STRAVINSKY
The Rake’s Progress (Baba the Turk)
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
Riders to the Sea (Maurya)
VERDI
La Traviata (Annina/Flora)
Luisa Miller (Federica)
WAGNER
Das Rheingold (Fricka/Wellgunde)
Der Fliegender Hollander (Mary)
Die Walkure (Fricka/Waltraute/Rossweisse)
Concert
BACH
Easter Oratorio
Magnificat
Mass in B Minor
St Matthew Passion
St John Passion
Christmas Oratorio
BRITTEN
Charm of Lullabies
Phaedra
BEETHOVEN
Missa Solemnis
Symphony No. 9
Choral Fantasy
BERLIOZ
L’enfance du Christ
BRAHMS
Alto Rhapsody
Viola Songs
BRUCKNER
Mass No.3 in F minor
DURUFLE
Requiem
DVOŘÁK
Stabat Mater
Requiem
ELGAR
The Apostles
The Dream of Gerontius
Sea Pictures
The Kingdom
The Music Makers
Press
Wagner THE VALKYRIE / English National Opera
"having two Frickas reminded us what a superb singer Barnett-Jones is becoming”
Tim Ashley, The Guardian (November 2021)
"Fricka – played by the indisposed Susan Bickley in a regal white trouser suit, but sung superbly from a side box by Claire Barnett-Jones, doubling as the Valkyrie Rossweisse"
Barry Milligton, Evening Standard (November 2021)
"Claire Barnett-Jones’ luscious mezzo made for an outstanding, incisive Fricka, sung from a box while the ailing Susan Bickley acted the role waspishly."
Mark Pullinger, Bachtrack (November 2021)
"Belting out Fricka from a box stage right, Claire Barnett Jones enjoyed a triumph on opening night in a role you could easily imagine her tackling for real. Her rich, burgundy mezzo has terrific body, and the top should gain in power with a little more experience."
Clive Paget, Limelight (November 2021)
"it was the third vocal treat of the evening, after Spence and Sherratt, to hear Claire Barnett-Jones – later singing Valkyrie Rossweise – bring lustrous Wagner-mezzo tones to the role from a box at the side."
David Nice, The Arts Desk (November 2021)
Tippett THE MIDSUMMER MARRIAGE / London Philharmonic Orchestra
"Claire Barnett-Jones as Sosostris has a challenging aria but showed clarity and drama in her rendition alongside the soaring brass crescendos”
Aliye Al-Hassan, Broadway World (September 2021)
"it was a treat to have recent Cardiff Singer alumnus Claire Barnett-Jones as an Erda-like Madame Sosostris"
Matthew Rye, Bachtrack (September 2021)
CARDIFF SINGER OF THE WORLD
"mezzo Claire Barnett-Jones showed in the earlier round where she’s heading with an impressive Waltraute’s narrative from Wagner’s Götterdämmerung. There was more of that in her most successful choice for the final, the stormy third song from Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, “Ich hab’ ein glühend Messer”.
David Nice, The Arts Desk (June 2021)
"reflecting her remarkable feat in stepping in at the eleventh hour as the official reserve and winning her round. She betrayed no nerves then – no time for that – and, in this final, her Ich hab’ ein glühend Messer from Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen showed the same fearsome immediacy."
Rian Evans, The Guardian (June 2021)
DAS RHEINGOLD / Grimeborn Festival
"Barnett-Jones’ Fricka exudes emotional intelligence, yet remains vulnerable in her permanent suspicion of Wotan"
Charlotte Valori, Operissima (August 2019)
