Madame X in Gerald Barry’s The Stronger, one act for soprano and orchestra at the Nederlandse Reisopera

The vocal lines are fiery difficult, bouncing from low to stratospheric heights in a single syllable. The style can best be described as 'terrace melody': flowing lines are completely absent. In this way, Barry sketches a musical counterpart to Madame X's wild emotions. Long passages are unaccompanied…Niles sings flawlessly, conveys every emotion phenomenally, and is largely intelligible—certainly not a given in opera.

—Theaterkrant (translated from original Dutch)

a beautiful interpretation of the tormented Madame X

—Place de l’opera (translated from original Dutch)

Right from her entrance, she opens out of nowhere with a hyper-virtuoso a capella passage full of impossible leaps, sung with impeccable clarity by soprano Jessica Niles.

—NRC (translated from original Dutch)