Fleur Barron

Mezzo-soprano

Biography

Hailed as “a knockout performer” by The Times, Singaporean-British mezzo Fleur Barron recently triumphed at the San Francisco Symphony in the title role of Kaija Saariaho’s opera Adriana Mater in a production helmed by Peter Sellars and Esa-Pekka Salonen, and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival as Ottavia in Monterverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea. She is a current Rising Star of Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and an Artistic Partner of the Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias in Oviedo, for which she will curate/perform multiple projects across several seasons. A passionate interpreter of opera, chamber music, and concert works ranging from the baroque to the contemporary, Fleur is mentored by Barbara Hannigan.

Fleur launches the 23/24 season with a return to the London Symphony Orchestra, where she is the soloist in their Season Opening Concert at the Barbican, performing Claude Vivier’s Wo bist du Licht, and in performances of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella the following week, both under the baton of Barbara Hannigan. Autumn 2023 sees the release on Pentatone Records of her performance in the title role in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with La Nuova Musica, and she also begins a multi-season partnership with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and conductor Ludovic Morlot, joining them to record Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Trois Poèmes de Mallarmé, and for performances of Shéhérazade and Montsalvatge’s Cinco Canciones Negras at L’Auditori Barcelona and on tour to Hamburg and Stockholm. Further orchestral engagements include Mahler’s Symphony no.3 with the Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov at the Baden Baden Festival, both Das Lied von der Erde and Mahler Symphony no.2 with Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias under Nuno Coehlo, and Freya Waley-Cohen’s Spell Book with the Manchester Collective at the Barbican.

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In 23/24 Fleur debuts two opera roles: Penelope in Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria with baroque ensemble I Gemelli, which tours to major venues including Teatro Real Madrid, Opéra de Bordeaux and Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse; and multiple roles in George Benjamin’s two-person opera Into the Little Hill with the Staatskapelle Berlin under Finnegan Downie Dear. On the recital platform, Fleur joins regular collaborator Julius Drake for concerts in London, Copenhagen, Santa Fe, Padua, Ireland and Oviedo. She debuts at the Wiener Konzerthaus in multiple chamber music concerts for their Gemischter Satz Festival, returns to the 92 Street Y in New York with Myra Huang, and joins Swedish ensemble O/Modernt at Wigmore Hall and Queen Silvia Concert Hall, Stockholm. Fleur is also the curator of OSPA’s East-West Fest in April 2024, featuring symphonic programs, chamber music, late-night concerts and community engagement over two weekends in Oviedo and Gijon.

In the 2022/23 season, Fleur had critical success in the title role of Kaija Saariaho’s opera Adriana Mater in a new production by Peter Sellars with the San Francisco Symphony under Esa-Pekka Salonen, and made a string of exciting orchestral debuts: Debussy La Damoiselle Elue with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Orchestre de Paris, Stravinsky Pulcinella with the Göteborgs Symfoniker and Barbara Hannigan, Berio Folksongs with Sir Mark Elder on tour with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Bruckner Te Deum with Vasily Petrenko and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven Missa Solemnis with Thomas Hengelbrock and the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, Beethoven 9^th Symphony with Rafael Payare and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Berlioz Les Nuits d’Ete with the Slovenian Philharmonic, Mahler’s Rückert Lieder with the Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias. She also sang the title role in Hasse’s Marc Antonio e Cleopatra with the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hannover, alto soloist in a new, staged production of Mozart’s Requiem at the Opéra National de Bordeaux, Bersi in Andrea Chénier and Mallika in Lakme for Opéra de Monte-Carlo and the Théâtre de Champs-Elysées. On the recital platform, Fleur joined Julius Drake for concerts at Het Concertgebouw, MiTO Festival in Milan and Turin, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Spivey Hall, and at the Théâtre de l’Athénée in Paris. She teamed up with duo partner Kunal Lahiry for recitals at Wigmore Hall and Oxford Lieder Festival, with Malcolm Martineau at Snape Maltings and with Joseph Middleton at Buxton Festival.

Highlights of recent seasons include Ottavia in L’Incoronazione di Poppea at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, la Zelatrice in Suor Angelica with the Berlin Philharmonic under Kirill Petrenko, Tchaikovsky’s Olga and Paulina, at Garsington Opera and Opera de Toulon, and her debut in the title role of Carmen for Arizona Opera; concerts with the Munich Philharmonic under Barbara Hannigan, the BBCSO, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Malaysian Philharmonic, and opera roles with the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Opéra de Monte-Carlo, La Monnaie/de Munt, Garsington Opera, Opéra National de Montpellier, Opéra National du Rhin and Cape Town Opera.

Fleur is committed to the way music can facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and healing. She is passionate about curating inclusive chamber music programming that amplifies the voices of diverse communities. Born in Northern Ireland to a Singaporean mother and British father, Fleur grew up in Hong Kong and later New York. She holds degrees from Columbia University (B.A. Comparative Literature) and Manhattan School of Music (M.M. Vocal Performance).

Reviews

“Smart recitals ask a question that the artist attempts to answer through their choice of repertoire…Barron showed herself unafraid to move the expectations of classical music forward, linguistically, thematically, and culturally. It’s exactly the kind of creative freedom and curatorial insight the art form needs…Barron’s thoughtful and inventive artistry makes her one to watch, and I’d be happy to follow her wherever she travels.”

Cameron Kelsall

Parterre, March 2023

“Exploiting the chiaroscuro within her warm, supple mezzo, Fleur Barron sings Pirro’s vocally wide-ranging solos [in Hasse’s Caio Fabbricio] with authority – tenderness, too […] a performances of skill, spirit and, where apt, virtuoso panache.”

Richard Wigmore

Gramophone

“Fleur Barron demonstrated an impressive theatricality and musicality, along with absolute technical control, channelled with great intensity into ‘Disprezzata Regina’ and the lament ‘Addio'”

Albert Garriga

Opera Actual, July 2022

“As for Fleur Barron, as soon as she opens her mouth, she seizes the listener with the depth of her timbre, the flexibility of her voice, and her musicality does the rest. Later, in the Pastorale, she is as sighing and mischievous a suitor as one could desire.”

Maurice Salles

Forum Opera, May 2022

More Reviews

“…what at first glance might seem like an indigestible dish, in the hands of the mezzo-soprano and her accompanist, Julius Drake, became a coherent recital, unveiled with great intelligence and increasing intensity. Fleur Barron has a lyrical mezzo-soprano instrument of beautiful colour, wielded with great control. Elegant line at all times, dramatic power when required (sensational in Messiaen) and charisma in abundance constituted the signature of a great recital.”

Opera Actual, September 2022

“It takes a lot of mastery of musical literature and a lot of courage to mix works by Brahms and Schubert with pieces by composers as diverse as Messiaen, Ives, Cole Porter, Fauré, Dutilleux and Chen Yi. Good taste, wisdom and the complicity of the always impressive pianist Julius Drake turned into a gem what in the hands of other performers could well have been a pastiche. Barron has a beautiful, incredibly deep voice, which she controls to perfection along with a measured theatricality, just the right amount to accompany the emotions transmitted by her instrument. From the first moment, the will to offer an evening no longer of good singing, but of real chamber music, was made manifest.”

ABC Spain, September 2022

“Fleur Barron, as Ottavia and Virtu, drifts onto the scene in her unsettled destiny and unleashes an extraordinary vocal palette ranging from delicacy to rage. Her farewell to Rome was heart-breaking.”

Un Fauteuil Pour L’Orchestre, July 2022

“Fleur Barron found an exceptional accuracy to the inner conflict Ottavia experiences in the face of her distress and repudiation. WIthout ever over-indulging the pathos, her melancholic Disprezzata Regina was touching.”

Le Temps, July 2022

“Barron was outstanding throughout, mining each song to lay bare the raw, unfettered grief that underpines each one…With a faultless technique, and burnished tone, she not only pointed the text immaculately, but drained every drop of emotion from each song, without ever allowing them to become mawkish.”

MusicOMH, March 2022

“The real stage vibrancy rests with Tatyana’s supposedly more complacent sister Olga, so compellingly acted and sung by Fleur Barron. Her unique mezzo-contralto immediately stood out in the Blackheath performance of Brahms’s Liebeslieder Waltzes; here she proves herself a stage animal as well. You can’t take your eyes off her whenever she appears; Garsington should build a Carmen around her. “

The Arts Desk, June 2021

“Barron was incredibly watchable, perfectly incarnating Olga’s irrepressible nature as the life and soul of any party, and particularly impressed with the strength and quality of her low register.”

Bachtrack, June 2021

“Silky, smoky, her mezzo-soprano sank low with intensity and made the melismatic meanderings shine; melody and word glowed vividly. This was mesmerizing singing, as if Barron were conjuring the music from the very air around her, which seemed to embrace the listener”

Opera Today, April 2021

“Fleur Barron was… the one revelation. Her meltingly rich mezzo and flair removed the ridiculousness [of the character].”

Los Angeles Times, 2019

“Fleur Barron, an earthy Baba the Turk in The Rake’s Progress, sounded like a Carmen in the making.”

New York Times, 2019

“The word ‘indisposed’ must send a pulse of dread through the heart of the concert hall director. How is one to find a replacement mezzo soprano who can sing anything from Bach to Berkeley with just 24 hours’ notice? Fleur Barron, who flew into London for this concert with pianist Julius Drake and cellist Natalie Clein did more than simply ensure the ‘show went on’. She brought incredible poise and expressive weight — not to mention a thrillingly dark and rich-veined mezzo, and a striking stage presence, to Kings Place for this concert in the Cello Unwrapped series..”

Seen and Heard International, 2017

“The cast… was strong across the board, but mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron as Anna was the charismatic star, projecting her character’s sass but also her sincerity, with a tone that was idiomatically dark and smoky”

The Boston Globe, 2016

“Dido was Fleur Barron: … a striking-looking young woman with an intriguingly dark and complex mezzo voice”

Opera News, 2015