“... a rich, glowing, lyric sound, destined for the heights”

“Amelia Watkins brings usefully campy acting to the role of this “Brainy Woman.” But she also excels in bringing across the character’s underlying existential dread.”

“Amelia Watkins, as Brainy Woman gives a bravura performance.”

“Norma barely sings a word, instead she narrates the emotional current of the sending and reading of these messages with gorgeous, heartfelt vocalises. During one sequence, the audience reads about Norma’s first night at the opera with her composer-lover while Norma, sung beautifully by Amelia Watkins, sings the aria “Pena Tiranna” from Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula. It’s a genius solution to expressing the inner lives of characters while keeping the action moving forward.”

“Oliver Knussen’s “Whitman Settings” begin with their feet on the ground and end in ecstasy - wonderfully sung by Amelia Watkins...”

“Asakir has a heated exchange with her sister, Mabrouka (the soprano Amelia Watkins, who brings bright sound and touching vulnerability to her performance).”

“Soprano Amelia Watkins sings brightly and agilely as Mabrouka, Asakir’s sister.”

“First was Tahwidah, a setting of a most poignant poem by Mahmoud Darwish who passed away before Fairouz could complete the work. His spirit may yet have been in the room, as soprano Amelia Watkins, with David Krakauer on clarinet, gave life to one of the saddest lullabies ever written. Krakauer made his clarinet a living thing, the anima of the mother singing to her dead son. Watkins was luminous and the pairing was far more than the sum of the parts.”

“Ottawa-born soprano Amelia Watkins sang well in the fifth movement, the only one with soprano solos.”

“In a resourceful, astonishingly beautiful Wilfred Owen setting by Gregory Spears, Amelia Watkins, a soprano, and Anthony Roth Costanzo, a countertenor, intertwined in languorous flights.”

“Another young Canadian, soprano Amelia Watkins completed the cast as an attractive-voiced Gianetta...”

“Amelia Watkins brought a megawatt smile to the role of Norina and matching vocal power to the top notes... Watkins possesses a bright soprano and a great deal of agility in fast passages.”

“Watkins’s down-to-earth, irresistible Zerlina provided the major vocal pleasure of the evening - a rich, glowing lyric sound destined for the heights.”

““La ci darem la mano” (vocally the evening’s zenith, as lushly sung by Watkins and Schaldenbrand).”