The final installment in Jake Heggie’s ekphrastic song cycle “Statuesque,” featuring a text by Gene Scheer, this art song is a monologue delivered by the Louvre’s well-known masterpiece the Winged Victory of Samothrace, who is fed up with being admired more for her beauty than her brain. The vocal line darts across Barton’s impressive range; her plush mezzo and acerbic steeliness evoke the statue’s more complex inner life. Barton’s ebullient exclamations about Winged Victory’s lack of a head are a vocal treat.

Andrew Lokay

Andrew Lokay began his career as an opera fan at the San Francisco Opera, where the first performance he saw was Madama Butterfly. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts in international relations and French with honors in international security studies. He now lives in Washington, DC and is a frequent audience member for opera and theatre in the nation’s capital.

Comments