Michael Brosilow

Presented by Chicago Opera Theater in 2021, these concert performances featured role debuts for both mezzos, Barton as Carmen and Blythe as Don José. While neither singer has since revisited these roles, Blythe herself, lest we not forget, was a Carmen nearly two decades before this tenor turn.

Blythe has embraced her low notes of late, supplementing a limited staged opera career and a more robust administrative career as the Artistic Director of the Bard College Graduate Vocal Arts Program with gender- and genre-bending drag performances as Blythely Oratonio.

Barton is an especially outspoken advocate for queer visibility in opera, appearing coutured in the Bisexual Pride flag at the Last Night of the Proms in 2019. “I look at stock characters like Carmen as super queer,” Barton mused in a 2019 interview with Slate. “For me, she’s not necessarily straight. When I flirt with the audience as Carmen, I really am flirting with every person out there because I think that’s who she is. I think she’s pansexual on some level.” She will appear in the San Francisco Opera 2025 Pride Concert later this month.

The parterre box team wishes you a happy, festive, and proud Pride Month!

Bizet: Carmen, “C’est toi?… C’est moi” (Chicago 2021)

Jamie Barton
Stephanie Blythe

Conductor: Lidiya Yankovskaya
Chicago Opera Theater
18 September 2021
In-house