www.bachtrack.com 29/05/2014

The voice of the afternoon, however, belonged to Martine Reyners as Maria. The scene in which Maria makes her first appearance on stage, surrounded by the shadows of her prison, was thrilling both for Reyners’ compelling acting and for her vocal intensity. Although written for soprano, the role of Maria is often thought of as a mezzo-soprano role, and so it was surprising to see Reyners billed as a soprano, especially as her vocal timbre is as dark as that of many mezzos, and her range extended well down the stave, gaining in intensity and colour the deeper she sang…The last act gives Maria the stage very largely to herself. Reyners was compelling in her pathos and strength as she sang her way through to the opera’s bitter but triumphant end: a moral victory, if not a physical one, with the Scottish queen’s faith and courage steadfast in the face of death.

www.bachtrack.com 29/05/2014

The soaring soprano of Martine Reyners’s Emilia promised a glorious future!

The Observer/ janvier 2008

It was a fast-paced work with some quite stunning singing, particularly from Belgian soprano Martine Reyners, who sang Emilia….

The Daily Post/ 2 janvier 2008

The coloratura role of Emilia herself was sung on the opening night by the belgian Martine Reyners.With an impressive range of colour,she grew in confidence and displayed unerring precision in her fiendishly difficult aria-finale.

Opera Now may/ juin 2008

Limited opportunity is not what comes the way of the eponymous role sung by the Belgian lyric coloratura soprano Martine Reyners, and how! Hers was a considerable vocal and histrionic achievement. Slim, even slight, she sang strongly and acted with whole body conviction, her eyes and arms being particularly communicative. Her voice is strong and with a wide variety of colour across its considerable range allied to vocal flexibility of a high order. Miss Reyners produced a consummate performance that gave focus to the whole of the action of the opera – its many and varied emotional conflicts are burdened on Emilia. She concluded the performance with hair-raising singing of the rondo finale….

musicweb-international/ janvier 2008