Performance Database

Claire Barnett-Jones

British mezzo-soprano Claire Barnett-Jones is fast becoming one of the most sought-after voices on both the operatic stage and the concert platform, recently being named one of Operawire’s Top 10 Rising Stars after being a Finalist and Winner of the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2021. In recent years, highlights have included her role and company debuts as Fricka Die Walküre at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl in Austria, and 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.
In the 2022-23 season, Claire makes her company debut at the Bayreuther Festspiele as Waltraute Die Walküre, her French operatic debut as Jezibaba in the Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse’s new production of Rusalka, her house debut at Welsh National Opera, and makes a return to English National Opera, to join the cast of their Platinum Jubilee concert performance of Britten’s Gloriana. Claire can be heard in recitals at Queen’s University Belfast, with Musici Ireland in Wexford, and tours the UK alongside pianist Sholto Kynoch as part of the Oxford Lieder Festival autumn touring season. On the concert platform she sings Messiah with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, and stepped in last minute to make her debut with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, in a concert performance of Katya Kabanova.
In 2017, Claire was presented with the Wessex Glyndebourne Association Award for a young singer of much promise, and in 2018 made her Glyndebourne Festival Debut as 2nd Noble Orphan in Der Rosenkavalier, and performed Annina La Traviata for Glyndebourne Touring Opera later that year. Following this, she made her company debut with English National Opera as Eurydice Myth/Persephone in Birtwistle’s The Mask of Orpheus, and was subsequently awarded the Lilian Baylis Award for Outstanding Potential in the Field of Opera in recognition of her exceptional stage debut. Claire was a member of the English National Opera Harewood Artist Programme from 2020 - 2022.
More recent highlights include Sosostris in Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the Baton of Edward Gardner at the Royal Festival Hall, Rossweisse/cover Fricka in The Valkyrie at English National Opera; the beginning of a new Ring Cycle at ENO directed by Richard Jones, as well as Lapák Cunning Little Vixen, also for ENO, creating the role of ‘Alto 1’ in Stockhausen’s Mittwoch Aus Licht with Birmingham Opera Company and the BBC Proms, directed by Sir Graham Vick, and Fricka and Wellgunde in Das Rheingold for Grimeborn Festival. Cover roles for English National Opera have included Frederica Luisa Miller, Jezibaba Rusalka and Suzuki Madame Butterfly.
In concert, Claire has performed Beethoven Symphony No. 9 at St John’s Smith Square, Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall, as part of ‘Precipice’, a series of specially curated concerts for The Grange Festival, and has given recitals at Snape Maltings, the Ludlow English Song Festival and the Wigmore Hall with Iain Burnside. Claire performed the role of Maurya Riders of the Sea for British Youth Opera, where she was awarded the Basil A. Turner Prize for outstanding performance. For Buxton Festival Opera she has performed Gertrude and cover Mother in Charpentier’s Louise conducted by Stephen Barlow.

Engagements in Bayreuth

Year Opera Part
2023 Götterdämmerung 2. Norn
2023 Die Walküre Waltraute