Review of Mezzaterra
Mezzaterra (★★★★) is a series of songs woven together into a tapestry on the themes of identity and belonging. It combines a clear concept with illuminating introductions….. and thought-provoking performances.
Drawing on a range of song traditions, both art and folk, old and new, as well as languages including English, German, Arabic, Yiddish and Hebrew…..the literary thread of journeying, exile and finding one’s place, shines through.
[Photo by Claire Shovelton]
Review of Glass Human
The Stage – Glass Human, October 2022
Camille Maalawy is rich toned as Oma… a Syrian refugee waiting for her leave-to-remain papers; and widower Edward, one of the Windrush generation, is driven into social withdrawal by the onset of dementia. A sustained, low-frequency electronic soundscape by composer Samantha Fernando and librettist Melanie Wilson (also a composer) almost becomes a fourth, invisible character – a dark, swirling force that draws the trio to the outdoors and unites them in their fears.
[Photo: Richard Hubert Smith ©Glyndebourne Productions Ltd]
Review of Glass Human
Mark Aspen – Glass Human, October 2022
Glyndebourne’s new chamber opera Glass Human, is a minimalistic piece, simple set, five musicians, three singers. Heightened emotions are there, but it is a mood piece. This is opera as introvert! Its introversion, though, is its strength. It looks at one human emotion, loneliness, and surgically dissects it…..Oma, having fled war, finds herself in a state of limbo, as she awaits leave to remain. In her mind, however, she has not left war behind. She still sees “humans broken, blood on the streets”. It is she, however, that reaches out. She takes a misdirected letter to Edward’s flat, but is puzzled by his confused state. There is something of a Mimi in Oma, but her loneliness is not redeemed by the suddenness of love, although she too awaits her fate. Camille Maalawy, in the role of Oma, is a versatile singer covering an eclectic range of musical genres from lieder and oratorio to Jewish and Arabic song. Her mezzo voice has a warmth and softness, and her wistful half-smile speaks of Oma’s repressed humanity. Oma sums up her predicament, “I have glass walls around me”…….The piece is gripping….as a mood piece, it absolutely excels. As a study of loneliness, it is incisive and intimate, as an opera, totally absorbing.
[Photo: Richard Hubert Smith ©Glyndebourne Productions Ltd]
Review of Glass Human - The Guardian
The Guardian – Glass Human, November 2022
Mezzo-soprano Camille Maalawy brings a graceful dignity to Oma the refugee, but the powerful story of her daughter’s drowning in the Channel is lost in sometimes foggy diction. No doubt this will improve during the run.
[Photo: Richard Hubert Smith ©Glyndebourne Productions Ltd]
Review of Silk Moth
I Care if You Listen – Silk Moth – September 2019
Silk Moth “explores the story of a mother implicated in the gender abuse and honour killing of her own daughter. […] the role of Mother calls for a rare agility across Arabic and operatic vocal styles in equal measure.”….The British-Egyptian mezzo Camille Maalawy, experienced in Arabic and Sephardic singing styles as well as Western classical music, was a perfect fit for Mother…..Maalawy was not only a strong singer, but also an excellent actress who brought a warm humanity to Mother and projected complex emotion even when reacting to a phone screen. The character might have had a voice, but Maalawy’s layered portrayal suggested she had little agency…a daring and powerful theatrical evening……but whose emotion will resonate for far longer.
[Photo by Lidia Crisafulli]
CAMILLE’S WIGMORE HALL DEBUT!
Friday, March 5th 2010, reviewed by Peter Grahame Woolf:
Lama’s two songs to texts from Darwish’s Yatirou-I Haanou felt like extended accompanied recitative, expressively presented by an excellent versatile mezzo Camille Maalawy, whose repertoire represents her “passion for embracing music from many cultures”.
Photo by Stephen McKay, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link
Press and Media
Spring 2020
Camille contributes to BBC Radio 3’s Music Matters – music beyond the crisis. Camille contributed to a wide-ranging discussion regarding the challenges facing musicians during and after the COVID-19 crisis. Listen here
This was part of a longer interview about her forthcoming Opera North Resonance Residency which will be broadcast at a later date.
Camille Maalawy Awarded Opera North Resonance Residency
Six lead artists have been announced for the return of Opera North’s Resonance residencies over the coming months, developing new ideas in workshops and work in progress performances in Leeds, with the support of PRS Foundation.
Launched in 2017, Resonance offers time, space and resources to professional artists from BAME backgrounds working in any genre of music and based in the North of England, to take their work in new directions, to experiment with collaborators and new ideas, and to test the results in front of audiences. Read Opera North Press Release
[Photo by Lidia Crisafulli]
