Puccini=Passion SACD

03/01/2003
Deborah Jones
The Australian (Australia)
star onstar onstar onstar on

"[Richard Bonynge] brings a sensitive hand and undisputed sense of the theatre ... he has a superb collaborator ... Barker doesn't just sing the notes but lives the drama. Her soprano has warmth and texture and she always makes a generous sound, but even better is the intelligent phrasing ... In an artform that likes nothing better than a dead dame, Barker invests these doomed women with dignity and humanity."