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Jenny Camilleri

Jenny Camilleri

After completing her postgraduate studies in psychology at the University of Toronto, Jenny moved to Amsterdam, where she enjoys singing in amateur choirs. She loves all genres of classical vocal music, especially nineteenth and early twentieth century Italian and German opera and art songs.

Author:Jenny Camilleri

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New Amsterdam: a walk around the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ

By Jenny Camilleri, 09 September 2025

Visit one of Amsterdam’s best-sounding concert venues and premier site for contemporary classical music – and take a wander around significant points of interest in this new area of the city.

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New Amsterdam: a walk around the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ

By Jenny Camilleri

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Digging up buried Baroque treasure at the ZaterdagMatinee

By Jenny Camilleri, 10 December 2021

For more than a decade Andrea Marcon and artistic director Kees Vlaardingerbroek have been presenting rare Baroque operas to the ZaterdagMatinee audiences at the Concertgebouw. Merope by Geminiano Giacomelli is their latest rediscovery.

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Rare Baroque treasure at the ZaterdagMatinee

By Jenny Camilleri

Thomas Oliemans in heartfelt chansons at the Concertgebouw

By Jenny Camilleri, 07 July 2021

Baritone and pianist Thomas Oliemans demonstrated his love of the French chanson accompanied by the richly layered strings of the Amsterdam Sinfonietta.

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Thomas Oliemans in heartfelt chansons at the Concertgebouw

By Jenny Camilleri

Effervescent Italian Baroque from the Academy of Ancient Music

By Jenny Camilleri, 14 April 2021

The Academy of Ancient Music puts composer Dario Castello in the spotlight and in context in this live stream from the West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge.

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Effervescent Italian Baroque from the Academy of Ancient Music

By Jenny Camilleri

Hungarian State Opera delightfully revamps L’incoronazione di Poppea

By Jenny Camilleri, 13 March 2021

Monteverdi’s last opera, recomposed by Máté Bella for a modern orchestra and a jazz combo, is an over-the-top, glitzy romp with plenty of casual sex and even more casual violence.

***11

Hungarian State Opera delightfully revamps L’incoronazione di Poppea

By Jenny Camilleri

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Mastering the online masterclass with baritone Benjamin Appl

By Jenny Camilleri, 22 February 2021

Online singing masterclasses sound less than ideal, but baritone Benjamin Appl and the Riga Jurmala Academy prove that they can be as fruitful as on-site sessions.

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Mastering the online masterclass with baritone Benjamin Appl

By Jenny Camilleri

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Young Artists To Watch: Mirjam Mesak – True to her own voice

By Jenny Camilleri, 14 December 2020

Talented and tenacious, soprano Mirjam Mesak has been making her mark in Munich, where she went through opera boot camp. Now she’s ready to take on the rest of the world.

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Mirjam Mesak – True to her own voice

By Jenny Camilleri

Royal Opera's A New Dark Age is a powerful cantata for our time

By Jenny Camilleri, 24 October 2020

The Royal Opera House responds to current global turmoil with a double bill by four women composers. Baritone Peter Brathwaite delivers a tour de force in The Knife of Dawn and A New Dark Age is a powerful emotional journey.

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Royal Opera's A New Dark Age is a powerful cantata for our time

By Jenny Camilleri

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Covid-19 in the Netherlands: rapid shutdown, gradual reopening

By Jenny Camilleri, 14 September 2020

Jenny Camilleri reports from Amsterdam on the response to the pandemic in the Netherlands, where the 1.5 metre rule is sacred.

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Covid-19 in the Netherlands: rapid shutdown, gradual reopening

By Jenny Camilleri

Rotterdam Philharmonic presents a fabulous Frau ohne Schatten

By Jenny Camilleri, 23 February 2020

Orchestra and singers reached great heights in this highly lyrical and dramatically flowing Frau ohne Schatten conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

*****

Rotterdam Philharmonic presents a fabulous Frau ohne Schatten

By Jenny Camilleri

A monolithic Nabucco at Dutch National Opera

By Jenny Camilleri, 27 January 2020

A promising cast on paper is scuppered by a banal, monotonous production and uninspired conducting.

**111

A monolithic Nabucco at Dutch National Opera

By Jenny Camilleri

Rodelinda hits all the marks at Dutch National Opera

By Jenny Camilleri, 14 January 2020

A veritable Baroque bonanza featuring a top-tier cast and orchestra in an emotionally incisive and handsomely crafted production.

*****

Rodelinda hits all the marks at Dutch National Opera

By Jenny Camilleri

Bartoli and band in killer castrato show at the Concertgebouw

By Jenny Camilleri, 10 December 2019

Cecilia Bartoli sang arias written (and not written) for Farinelli like a goddess, putting on and taking off a parade of varigendered costumes to the jubilant virtuosity of Les Musiciens du Prince.

*****

Bartoli and band in killer castrato show at the Concertgebouw

By Jenny Camilleri

Sublime singing in the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s Scenes from Goethe's Faust

By Jenny Camilleri, 06 December 2019

Soloists and choir, headed by a spellbinding Christian Gerhaher, brought real lustre to Schumann’s treatment of Goethe’s magnum opus.

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Sublime singing in Scenes from Goethe's Faust

By Jenny Camilleri

Season opener Pagliacci/Cavalleria Rusticana sets the bar high at Dutch National Opera

By Jenny Camilleri, 05 September 2019

Exceptional singing, an auspicious conducting debut and a staging that is both sophisticated and emotionally involving make this production an unequivocal winner.

*****

Pagliacci/Cavalleria Rusticana sets the bar high at DNO

By Jenny Camilleri

Pelléas et Mélisande at the Holland Festival: austerely beautiful but flawed

By Jenny Camilleri, 05 June 2019

The credits for this new production directed by Olivier Py raised high expectations that were only partially met on opening night.

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Pelléas et Mélisande: austerely beautiful but flawed

By Jenny Camilleri

Airborne string players and choral wizardry in aus LICHT Part 3

By Jenny Camilleri, 02 June 2019

In the final instalment of aus LICHT, the Helicopter String Quartet lives up to the publicity hype and choirs perform marvellous feats.

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Airborne string players and choral wizardry in aus LICHT Part 3

By Jenny Camilleri

Hypnotic, diabolical and magical: aus LICHT Part 2, Lucifer & Eve

By Jenny Camilleri, 01 June 2019

The second day of aus LICHT is one mesmerising highlight after another, including the Netherlands Youth and Children’s Choirs in one magical and one sinister procession.

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Hypnotic, diabolical and magical:

By Jenny Camilleri

aus LICHT Part 1: Michael only takes flight in the second half

By Jenny Camilleri, 31 May 2019

The performers in Part 1 of aus LICHT at the Holland Festival are amazing, but the production doesn’t rev up until the Archangel Michael goes on his dizzying world tour.

***11

aus LICHT Part 1: Michael only takes flight in the second half

By Jenny Camilleri

Glorious ensembles in Dutch National Opera’s new Tannhäuser

By Jenny Camilleri, 06 April 2019

Orchestra and chorus reach great Wagnerian heights in this new production by Christof Loy, a study of an artist in revolt against hypocritical sexual mores.

***11

Glorious ensembles in Dutch National Opera’s new Tannhäuser

By Jenny Camilleri

Perfect symbiosis of words and music in Fin de partie at the Opera Forward Festival

By Jenny Camilleri, 06 March 2019

György Kurtág’s long awaited opera Fin de partie gets a second run in Amsterdam after its La Scala premiere, with the same excellent cast, conductor and production team.

*****

Perfect symbiosis of words and music in Fin de partie

By Jenny Camilleri

Albrecht’s Mahler 8 is a fierce struggle for redemption

By Jenny Camilleri, 23 February 2019

Leading five choirs, fine soloists and a glowing Netherlands Philharmonic, conductor Marc Albrecht emphasised the human struggle in a highly dramatic performance of Mahler’s mammoth eighth symphony.

*****

Albrecht’s Mahler 8 is a fierce struggle for redemption

By Jenny Camilleri

The many facets of Renée Fleming in recital at the Concertgebouw

By Jenny Camilleri, 07 February 2019

In a highly versatile recital, soprano Renée Fleming was at her best in unaffected songs and operetta.

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Renée Fleming in recital at the Concertgebouw

By Jenny Camilleri

La Cetra dazzles in Juditha triumphans at Dutch National Opera

By Jenny Camilleri, 26 January 2019

Floris Visser’s staging transforms Vivaldi’s biblical oratorio into a credible wartime drama. The young cast is proficient, and La Cetra Baroque Orchestra, conducted by Andrea Marcon, nothing short of miraculous.

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La Cetra dazzles in Juditha triumphans at Dutch National Opera

By Jenny Camilleri

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Poisoned Love: Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe

By Jenny Camilleri, 04 January 2019

Robert Schumann uses 16 poems of Heinrich Heine to tell a musical story of love and betrayal.

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Poisoned Love: Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe

By Jenny Camilleri

Ravishment without drama in Dutch premiere of A Village Romeo and Juliet

By Jenny Camilleri, 15 December 2018

Gorgeous playing under Sir Mark Elder wasn’t enough to mask the lack of theatrical drive in the scrupulously cast Dutch premiere of Delius’ most successful opera.

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The Dutch premiere of A Village Romeo and Juliet

By Jenny Camilleri

Sovereign Bartoli revisits Vivaldi at the Concertgebouw

By Jenny Camilleri, 23 November 2018

Almost twenty years after her first Vivaldi album, Cecilia Bartoli revisits the composer in her latest recording and touring project.

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Sovereign Bartoli revisits Vivaldi at the Concertgebouw

By Jenny Camilleri

Brownlee and Spyres at the Concertgebouw: so much more than vocal jousting

By Jenny Camilleri, 31 October 2018

Top tenors Lawrence Brownlee and Michael Spyres dared to duel at the Concertgebouw. Both emerged victorious, and not just because of the volley of sensational top notes.

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Brownlee and Spyres: so much more than vocal jousting

By Jenny Camilleri

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in symphonically lustrous Weill

By Jenny Camilleri, 18 October 2018

Performing both works for the first time, the RCO capered crisply through Shostakovich’s Suite from The Nose and played sumptuously in Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins, with captivating songstress Wende.

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Symphonically lustrous Weill at the Concertgebouw

By Jenny Camilleri

An intense Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

By Jenny Camilleri, 27 September 2018

Stéphane Denève and the RCO gave a powerful, meticulously prepared performance of Honegger’s dramatic oratorio about Joan of Arc.

*****

An intense Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher in Amsterdam

By Jenny Camilleri

Fiery, formidable Boris Godunov at the Concertgebouw

By Jenny Camilleri, 08 September 2018

This year’s NTR ZaterdagMatinee concert series in Amsterdam kicked off with a Boris Godunov that left nothing to be desired.

*****

Fiery, formidable Boris Godunov at the Concertgebouw

By Jenny Camilleri

Yannick Nézet-Séguin says au revoir to Rotterdam

By Jenny Camilleri, 09 June 2018

The Rotterdam Philharmonic marked their centenary with two concerts starring mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato. A bittersweet weekend, during which they also took leave of their beloved principal conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

*****

Yannick Nézet-Séguin says au revoir to Rotterdam

By Jenny Camilleri

Superb, sinister Tales of Hoffmann at Dutch National Opera

By Jenny Camilleri, 03 June 2018

Selectively unearthed from current critical editions, this fabulously performed new Hoffmann plumbs the murky depths of its antihero’s psyche.

*****

A superb, sinister Hoffmann at Dutch National Opera

By Jenny Camilleri

Un ballo in maschera glitters but doesn’t ignite in Budapest

By Jenny Camilleri, 21 April 2018

The acting was patchy and the singing ranged from serviceable to laudable in this dazzling new production at the Budapest Spring Festival.

***11

Un ballo glitters but doesn’t ignite in Budapest

By Jenny Camilleri

Spectacular Gurrelieder revived at Dutch National Opera

By Jenny Camilleri, 18 April 2018

An exemplary cast, an opulent orchestra and unforgettable images in Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder.

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Spectacular Gurrelieder revived at Dutch National Opera

By Jenny Camilleri

Dutch National Opera successfully resurrects La morte d’Orfeo

By Jenny Camilleri, 23 March 2018

In a successfully streamlined staging, Stefano Landi’s obscure, overpopulated opera got the royal treatment by a superior cast and orchestra.

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Dutch National Opera successfully resurrects La morte d’Orfeo

By Jenny Camilleri

Musically superlative Das Floß der Medusa at Dutch National Opera

By Jenny Camilleri, 13 March 2018

Ingo Metzmacher leads a musically formidable performance of Hans Werner Henze’s shipwreck oratorio. Romeo Castellucci’s staging engages the senses but remains emotionally distant.

****1

Musically superlative Das Floß der Medusa at DNO

By Jenny Camilleri

Pierre Audi on Orpheus and thirty years of mythic mystery at Dutch National Opera

By Jenny Camilleri, 26 February 2018

The director/producer of more than 400 operas tells us about La morte d'Orfeo, his last production before leaving for Aix in September, about Wagner, about working with the visual arts and more...

Pierre Audi: thirty years of mythic mystery

By Jenny Camilleri

Traetta's Antigona a forceful Baroque drama in Amsterdam

By Jenny Camilleri, 10 February 2018

Tommaso Traetta’s Antigona is given a powerful staging, although not all the voices proved big enough for its mythical subject.

***11

Traetta's Antigona a forceful Baroque drama in Amsterdam

By Jenny Camilleri

Tristan und Isolde smoulders at Dutch National Opera

By Jenny Camilleri, 18 January 2018

A strong cast, a lyrically simmering orchestra and lucid staging make this a Tristan und Isolde to treasure.

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Tristan und Isolde smoulders at Dutch National Opera

By Jenny Camilleri

Dutch National Opera revives a musically gorgeous La bohème

By Jenny Camilleri, 01 December 2017

Gifted conductor Andrea Battistoni and a vocally seductive cast made this revival of Benedict Andrews’s flawed La bohème a musical triumph.

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A musically gorgeous Bohème in Amsterdam

By Jenny Camilleri

Thrilling singing in Simon Boccanegra at the Concertgebouw

By Jenny Camilleri, 16 September 2017

Verdi voices that make one sit up and listen made this a memorable matinee.

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Thrilling singing in Simon Boccanegra at the Concertgebouw

By Jenny Camilleri

Diana Damrau puts the sparkle into the RCO’s Opening Night in Amsterdam

By Jenny Camilleri, 14 September 2017

While Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony failed to gel, the German soprano's Mozart turned the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s first concert of the season into a real celebration.

***11

Diana Damrau puts the sparkle into RCO season opener

By Jenny Camilleri

Solid La forza del destino opens Dutch National Opera season

By Jenny Camilleri, 09 September 2017

An able cast sings in Christof Loy’s non-interventionist and insightful production of Verdi’s panoramic tragedy, conducted with vivid detail by Michele Mariotti.

***11

Solid La forza del destino opens Dutch National Opera season

By Jenny Camilleri

Wrong rep sinks opera evening at the Concertgebouw

By Jenny Camilleri, 12 July 2017

Mismatching between programme and performers resulted in a disappointing evening of operatic all-time favourites.

**111

Wrong rep sinks opera evening at the Concertgebouw

By Jenny Camilleri

Funeral fun with Franui at the Holland Festival

By Jenny Camilleri, 21 June 2017

Half-arty, half-folky, this collaboration between bass-baritone Florian Boesch and the East Tyrolean ensemble Franui was an entertaining mixed bag.

***11

Funeral fun with Franui at the Holland Festival

By Jenny Camilleri

Beautiful role debut for Malin Byström in Amsterdam Salome

By Jenny Camilleri, 09 June 2017

In an elegant new production by Ivo van Hove, Malin Byström portrays a graceful, erotic Salome and the RCO play with sensuous lyricism under Daniele Gatti.

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Beautiful role debut for Malin Byström in Amsterdam Salome

By Jenny Camilleri

Stenz conducts an impressive Babylon at the Holland Festival

By Jenny Camilleri, 03 June 2017

The loud cheers for the performers were richly deserved, although Jörg Widmann’s imposing but sprawling Babylon was not well-served by the concert format.

***11

An impressive Babylon at the Holland Festival

By Jenny Camilleri

Rigoletto is mad but the singing is fine at Dutch National Opera

By Jenny Camilleri, 09 May 2017

Damiano Michieletto’s intriguing production of Rigoletto is set in a mental hospital, and sidelines emotion in favour of analysis. The singing, on the other hand, is heartfelt and exciting.

***11

Rigoletto is mad but the singing is fine

By Jenny Camilleri

Postcard from Amsterdam: unassuming riches

By Jenny Camilleri, 02 May 2017

When you stroll through the Rijksmuseum, 17th-century burghers peer at you, self-assured and dressed soberly, mostly in black. The first impression these portraits of the superrich give is that their subjects did not much care for ostentatious display.

Postcard from Amsterdam: unassuming riches

By Jenny Camilleri