Oreste: Iphigénie en Tauride / Opéra national de Lorraine 2023
“Nothing is lacking in Julien Van Mellaerts’ superb Orestes: a clear baritone, a rich timbre projected with honesty, sincere expression and musical discipline.”
Classique News
“As Orestes, Julien Van Mellaerts gives a daring performance, embodying the desperate matricide who longs for the expiation of death.”
Díapason
“Julien Van Mellaerts is an extraordinary, contemporary Orestes, using text with wonderful variety. Every conclusion is the start of a dramatic new musical adventure.”
Opera Online
“Julien Van Mellaerts is a moving Orestes: Orestes flayed alive, emotion on edge, he produces a second act of great beauty: “Gods who pursue me” is sung in full voice, in the depths of despair, before he approaches in a more internalized way the lines, “The calm enters my heart”. Dramatically, Julien Van Mellaerts is absolutely attuned with the expectations of the director Silvia Paoli: his acting talents allow him to be as credible as a neurotic matricide as he is the lover of his companion in misfortune.”
Première Loge
“The Oreste of Julien Van Mellaerts compels with his stagecraft and the power of his performance, the strength and impact of his high notes, the subtlety of his phrasing. His French pronunciation is remarkable, completely intelligible.”
ResMusica
Masetto: Don Giovanni / Salzburg Mozart Week 2023
“With his elegant, nuanced voice, Julien Van Mellaerts convinces as the cuckolded Masetto.”
Opera Online
“Julien Van Mellaerts was well cast as Masetto.”
Voralberger Nachrichten
Masetto: Don Giovanni / Verbier Festival 2022
“Julien Van Mellaerts is a Masetto of noble bearing, both touching and biting in his presentation of jealousy, his baritone beautifully projected over the whole range.”
Olyrix
“Julien Van Mellaerts performs the ungrateful role of Masetto with intelligence and restraint.”
ResMusica
“…beautiful expression, impeccable phrasing and a very attractive timbre.”
Wanderer
Duke of Nottingham: Roberto Devereux / Badusches Staatstheater Karslruhe 2022
“With a beautiful voice, Julien Van Mellaerts made an excellent impression both visually and as an actor.”
Badische Neuste Nachrichten
Barber: Complete Songs / Resonus Classics 2022
“We get a first class rendering of Dover Beach. Julien Van Mellaerts and the Navarra Quartet are in rapt accord.”
Gramophone
“It’s the baritone Julien Van Mellaets who sings Dover Beach here, with the Navarra Quartet, in a performance that has considerable immediacy…”
The Guardian
“Julien Van Mellaerts’ baritone blends beautifully with the strings and his reading stands comparison with both Hampson and Fischer-Dieskau.”
MusicWeb International
Silvio: Pagliacci / Israeli Opera 2022
“Julien Van Mellaerts has an elegant presence and a pleasing, refined vocal style…”
Ha’aretz
Duke of Nottingham / Chelsea Opera Group 2021
“Julien Van Mellaerts proved a highly effective Duca di Nottingham as he asserted his secure and pleasing baritone to excellent effect.”
Music OMH
“Julien Van Mellaerts mustered robust ttone as Sara’s angry husband, Nottingham.”
Opera
“Baritone Julien Van Mellaerts was superb as the aggrieved Duke of Nottingham. Always mellifluous and elegant of voice, Van Mellaerts persuasively charted Nottingham’s evolving feelings from affability and concern to pain and anger, and finally vengeful vindictiveness. He evinced real dramatic power in Act 3.”
Opera Today
“Julien Van Mellaerts switched from joviality to rage with skill, suggesting how powerful he will be in future Verdi roles revolving around betrayal.”
Plays To See
“Julien Van Mellaerts had great fun with Nottingham who starts out as reliable and sympathetic to Roberto, a good friend, but on discovering that Roberto loves Sara, his wife, Nottingham turns vengeful and Van Mellaerts really made us feel the change, without ever blustering. This was a finely sung account of the role, but one full of character, and also a lovely flexible top to his voice.”
Planet Hugill
“Julien Van Mellaert’s Duke of Nottingham was a deliciously scheming villain.”
The Times
Songs of Travel and Home / Champs Hill Records 2021
“A heartfelt, glorious disc of song, the programme imaginative, the performances radiant.”
Classical Explorer
“This is a fantastic disc: a singer with a very expressive voice, a pleasing tone, a great insight into the music, and accuracy pitch…In my mind, this is a must have recording.”
Classical Music Daily
“This disc would be notable if only because it’s the debut recital recording of the much-awarded and much-travelled New Zealand-born baritone Julien Van Mellaerts… Thanks to the baritone’s natural enunciation and the pianist’s detailed shading, the performance goes beyond the outward descriptive elements and well into the fantasy, romance and even visionary qualities that sometimes need to be coaxed from the music. From a purely vocal standpoint, I particularly love the way Van Mellaerts ascends fluidly to his upper range.”
Gramophone
“…a lovely collection of arts songs performed with beauty, subtlety and wit.”
NZ Listener
“This is a lovely disc, not just beautifully sung and played, but genuinely personal in tone. The programme is performed with both insight and affection. I know that I shall return to Songs of Travel and Home time and again, most especially for the sensitive interpretation of Bridge’s three songs; for the pathos and humour of Farr’s avian portraits; and for the engaging journey that we make alongside Vaughan Williams’ vagabond.”
Opera Today
“He sings with an engagingly firm sense of line along with a lovely flexibility and admirable freedom in the upper repertoire, plus superb diction so that you never have to worry about checking the words.”
Planet Hugill
Garibaldo: Rodelinda / Göttingen International Handel Festival 2021
“Julien Van Mellaerts was suitably mean as the sneering villain Garibaldo, with a smooth, resonant voice.”
Bachtrack
“Julien Van Mellaerts enjoyed playing the baddie, wrapping his firm baritone around Garibaldo’s “Tirannia gli diede il regno…”
Opera
Count Almaviva: Le nozze di Figaro / Opera Holland Park 2021
“Van Mellaerts makes a superb Count, a dangerously attractive figure, capable of turning from charm to angry hauteur in a flash…”
The Guardian
“Julien Van Mellaerts spun long, suave lines in the Count’s aria…”
Opera
“Julian Van Mallaerts sang the Count with authority and bravado…”
Opera Wire
“Julien Van Mellaerts was an aristocratic but deliciously self-important Count, behaving with glorious abandon yet never losing consciousness of his status. From his first appearance, deliberately flashing naked legs and boxer shorts (under his robe) at Susanna to his final capitulation to the Countess this was a fully rounded performance. We could laugh at the way his servants frustrated his plans, and decry his selfishness but Van Mellaerts also made him sympathetic, a little of the self-important yet powerless underdog who does not realise that he lacks power. A delightful performance, well-judged in balancing comedy and anger, and finely sung.”
Planet Hugill
“Strong dramatic performances from (ia) Julien Van Mellaerts’ emphatic, hectoring Count – — excellent with the text as one would expect of the 2017 Wigmore Hall Song Competition winner…”
The Sunday Times
Recital: LIFE Victoria, Barcelona, April 2021
“Van Mellaerts performed songs by Hugo Wolf with exceptionally natural expression, presenting each piece as if the page of a personal diary.”
Crítica Nacional
“Julien Van Mellaerts was wonderful in every song. With a voice full of expression, he gave a different nuance to each phrase. Each song was a delicate jewel of art that resonated within us.”
Espectáculos BSM
“From the beginning of the recital, Julien Van Mellaerts showed a voice of beautiful quality, well-schooled and flexible.”
La Vanguardia
Kathleen Ferrier Awards 2017 / Wigmore Hall
“…van Mellaerts cut an assured figure on stage and sang with an open, engaging tone.”
Opera Today
Wigmore Hall / Kohn Foundation International Song Competition 2017
“A beautiful voice is not enough to animate a recital, and animation was what the New Zealand baritone Julien Van Mellaerts and the British pianist Gamal Khamis brought to their Schumann, Britten, Tchaikovsky and Debussy, alert to the specifics of style, language and character in each miniature narrative. No surprise that Van Mellaerts, witty and wiry-toned, walked away with the top prize.”
The Times
Elizabeth / Royal Ballet at the Barbican
“Julien Van Mellaerts’ baritone songs are beautifully, conversationally delivered…”
The Arts Desk
“…the baritone Julien Van Mellaerts brings the songs to life with warmth and wit.”
The Times
Mr Gedge: Albert Herring / Royal College of Music Internatinal Opera School
“Julien Van Mellaerts as Mr Gedge (the vicar) was the most natural, pursuing the headmistress Miss Wordsworth with glutinous sincerity and some lovely singing.”
Classical Source
“Julien Van Mellaerts’ Mr Gedge seizes attention and simply won’t let go. There’s such detail in his oleaginous vicar, so ghastly-fond of Miss Wordsworth that even in the crowded scenes of Act II he draws the eye, constantly inventive.”
The Arts Desk
“Julien Van Mellaerts simpers deliciously as Mr Gedge the vicar, providing some of our finest moments of humour …”
Bachtrack
“The baritone Julien Van Mellaerts gave a winningly detailed performance as Reverend Gedge, alert to the nuances of the text and aware of his fellow singers…”
Opera
Count Danilo: The Merry Widow / Ryedale Festival Opera
“Count Danilo was taken with considerable brio by Julien Van Mellaerts…”
Opera
Figaro: Le nozze di Figaro / Salzburg Mozart Week
“As a well-deserved award winner of numerous singing competitions, Julien Van Mellaerts became the shooting star of the evening in the title role of Figaro. The young New Zealander is still unknown on the opera stage, but his charisma and vocal elegance were in no way inferior to the Count of Florian Boesch.”
Das Opernmagazin
“Julien Van Mellaerts was a youthful, pleasingly sung Figaro.”
Der Standard
Papageno: Die Zauberflöte / Verbier Festival
“The character of Papageno requires a lot of theatrical energy and lightness, which the baritone, with his assured voice and clear and articulated projection, absolutely fulfilled, anchoring the show, and quickly making him the most touching character of the opera.”
Olyrix
“The “feel-good” Papageno of New Zealander Julien Van Mellaerts maintains an appreciable balance between acting and singing. Neither clumsy, nor a victim, he is entirely believable with his full, commanding voice, without exaggeration whether legato or staccato.”
Opera Online
Le Mari: Les mamelles de Tirésias / RCMIOS
“As Le Mari, New Zealander Julien Van Mellaerts displayed the characteristic ‘open, engaging tone’ and ‘muscularity and vitality’ that I’d enjoyed at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards Final earlier this year. Van Mellaerts delighted in the grotesqueries and improbabilities, and the brightness and power of his baritone enabled Le Mari to hold his own against his wife’s feminist proselytizing.”
Opera Today
Aeneas: Dido and Aeneas / Cheltenham Bach Choir
“Aeneas (who sometimes strikes me as a complete cad) sounded sincerely in love with the queen in Julien Van Mellaerts’ emotionally charged portrayal.”
Seen and Heard International
The Travelling Companion / New Sussex Opera
“Outstanding was Julien Van Mellaerts as the Companion, binding the tale together and reflecting the interface between the temporal and magical worlds with his warm and richly focused baritone.”
Bachtrack
“Julien Van Mellaerts used his lovely, beguiling tone and dramatic nous to make us warm to this Nick Shadow with good intentions.”
Opera Today
“Julien Van Mellaerts made The Travelling Companion a bluff, hearty man whose mysterious nature we only gradually came to appreciate. Van Mellaerts sang with engaging tone. Yet in the few occasions when The Travelling Companion shows his otherworldly powers, such as the scene where he hears and mysteriously echoes the princess’s inner thoughts, Van Mellaerts hinted at the character’s hidden depths. The ending was very British stiff upper lip, it could hardly be anything else given the period of the setting, yet Van Mellaerts conveyed much emotion.”
Planet Hugill
“…the professional leads – notably Kate Valentine as a princess with a Turandot complex and Julien Van Mellaerts as the (possibly angelic) Travelling Companion went at it with absolute sincerity and a real sense of Stanford’s lyrical idiom.”
The Spectator
“…there are finely achieved performances from David Horton, a likeable Everyman-figure as John, Julien Van Mellaerts as his enigmatic companion, Kate Valentine as the determined Princess, and Pauls Putnins as her fair-minded father.”
The Stage
“…the soloists – David Horton as the lad, Julien Van Mellaerts as the stranger, Kate Valentine as the princess, and Pauls Putnins, Felix Kemp and Ian Beadle in smaller roles – are all admirable…”
The Telegraph
Schaunard: La bohème / Christine Collins Young Artists at Opera Holland Park
“Julien Van Mellaerts sang a very stylish and lively Schaunard.”
Mark Ronan Reviews
“Julien Van Mellaerts (whom we saw in Rossini’s La Gazzetta at the Royal College of Music) and Richard Walshe (who was Figaro in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Royal College of Music) made a fine double act as Schaunard and Colline. Van Mellaerts was finely amusing in his solo in Act One (when the Bohemians have absolutely no interest in Schaunard’s recitation of how he got the money which has bought them the food), and Walshe gave a fine farewell to his overcoat. But more than that, they joined with Christopher Cull and Stephen Aviss to bring out a delightful sense of camaraderie and shared experience in the lives of the four Bohemians, you really did get a sense of it being the four young men against the world. The horse-play was perhaps a little more stately, less rumbustious than usual, but that is no bad thing and the mock dance etc in Act Four made sense in the new context.”
Planet Hugill
Schaunard: La bohème / New Zealand Opera
”Julien Van Mellaerts a lively Schaunard with his rich baritone and high-spirited acting…“
Bachtrack
Gabriel von Eisenstein: Die Fledermaus / RCMIOS
“Eisenstein, the philandering husband about to go to prison for assaulting a police officer, was sung by the New Zealand baritone Julien Van Mellaerts. He managed to be both bumptious and suave, while also negotiating the high notes skillfully.”
The Guardian
“Julien Van Mellaerts made a nicely fatuous Eisenstein, and his sunny tenorial baritone made one regret the character’s lack of an aria.”
Opera
Harlequin: Ariadne auf Naxos / Longborough Festival Opera
“Julien van Mellaerts’s Harlequin and Aidan Coburn’s Brighella are especially memorable.“
The Arts Desk
“…a marvellously directed and funny quartet of comedians from Aidan Coburn, Richard Roberts, Timothy Dawkins and, in especially good voice, Julien van Mellaerts.”
Classical Source
