About

Resume Repertoire Upcoming

“There’s your heavy opera, where basically people sing foreign and it goes like ‘Oh oh oh, I am dyin’, oh I am dyin’, oh oh oh, that’s what I’m doin’,’ and there’s your light opera, where they sing in foreign and it basically goes ‘Beer! Beer! Beer! Beer! I like to drink lots of beer!’, although sometimes they drink champagne instead. That’s basically all of opera, reely.”

– Nanny Ogg, Terry Pratchett, Maskerade

Known as a resourceful, irrepressible artist and inveterate performer of pants roles, Ivey Barr debuted in Atlanta with Peach State Opera Company as Cherubino in their English-language touring production of The Marriage of Figaro. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Ivey has appeared online in virtual opera concerts with Spooky Goose Opera, as William Talvas (Ashes of Aquitaine) with Altered Shakespeare, and in dozens of classic play readings with Plague Mask Players.

From Plague Mask Players, Ivey holds “Billy Awards” for Autolycus (The Winter’s Tale), Ariel (The Tempest), Octavius Caesar (Antony & Cleopatra), Truffaldino (The Servant of Two Masters), Lord Goring (An Ideal Husband), The Fool (King Lear), and Cinesias (Lysistrata) – including Best Leading Comedic Performance, Best Romance, and three successive Best Song awards.

Comet Opera

As a founding member of Comet Opera, Ivey previously appeared as Sesto (La Clemenza di Tito), Ruggiero (Alcina), Despina (Così Fan Tutte), Benedick (Much Ado About Nothing) and Cherubino (The Marriage of Figaro). Ivey made her opera debut as Cherubino in April 2017 and was praised for the energy and physicality which would become a trademark of her roles.

In April 2018, Ivey designed the Mozart pastiche operetta Much Ado for the newly-founded student organization and, as Benedick, explored the music of two of Mozart’s early castrato roles, Cecilio (Lucio Silla) and Ramiro (La Finta Giardiniera). While working on Così (2018), Ivey also began coaching student performers and partially retranslated the libretto, which became recurring responsibilities. Alcina (2019) also featured her English translations and music direction, while Tito (2019) featured English dialogue written for the production with castmates Avanti Dey (Vitellia) and Rachel Davies (director).

Other Appearances

Outside of Comet Opera, Ivey has performed across the genres of opera, musical theatre, plays, hybrid digital art, and street performance: with Public Works Dallas at the Dallas Theater Center as Perdita in Lear DeBessonet’s musical adaptation of The Winter’s Tale, directed by Kent Gash, and as a featured singer in Shania Taub’s As You Like It, directed by Ann Yee; as Elizabeth in Juneteenth by Greg Ellis; as a street performer with PULSE Dallas; as a staff singer at Arapaho United Methodist Church; in the chorus of Dido and Aeneas in concert with Classical Fusion; and as Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus) with North Carolina’s Little Opera Company of Charlotte.

Education

In summer 2018, Ivey studied and performed with Opera in Concert in Italy under the direction of Edward and Heather Crafts. Ivey continued to study with Edward Crafts in Dallas for two years and still occasionally helps Opera in Concert update their website.

Growing up in a culture of a cappella vocal music in the Primitive Baptist church, Ivey began formally studying voice in 2010 with her mother, pianist Katie Ivey, and went on to work with Dr. Kathryn Evans at the University of Texas at Dallas in 2014. Ivey received a minor in music from the University of Texas at Dallas in May 2017 and, as a Creative Practice MFA student in the Arts and Technology program, studied marketing, web design, event production, and video-enhanced performance.

Ivey now resides in Atlanta, GA. On the rare occasion that her work does not directly involve singing, her friends often encourage her to sing anyway.