“…in solos there is an intense musicality and variety of colour which enriched the Qui sedes and Agnus Dei paragraphs.”
B Minor Mass / St Albans Abbey / St Albans Observer

“In Bach's reflective arias, soprano Sylvia O'Brien is quietly radiant, with counter-tenor James Laing having aesthete tonal beauty like polished white marble.”
St John Passion / Irish Chamber Orchestra / Irish Independent

“The compelling young countertenor James Laing is becoming quite a master of sinister, ethereally pitched roles: he was outstanding as the Fox in Opera North's recent Pinocchio and is no less compelling here as an androgynously alien Oberon, his voice as sharp and scintillating as the diamante sarong and skull cap he is given to wear.”
Oberon: A Midsummer Night’s Dream / Opera North / The Guardian

“Their emotional mutations are engineered by James Laing's cool countertenor Oberon, with the aid of Tom Walker's half-hirsute, half-smooth Puck and a few drops from the luminous wand containing Oberon's narcotics.”
Oberon: A Midsummer Night’s Dream / Opera North / The Independent on Sunday

“James Laing’s Oberon and Jeni Bern’s scintillating Titania command the stage and their magical kingdom.”
Oberon: A Midsummer Night’s Dream / Opera North / The Stage

“Laing is one of the few to get most of his words across.”
Oberon: A Midsummer Night’s Dream / Opera North / The Times

“One of today's most exciting young countertenors James Laing makes a vocally highly imposing Oberon.”
Ob eron: A Midsummer Night’s Dream / Opera North / The Yorkshire Post

“...winningly sung by Victoria Simmonds (Pinocchio), Jonathan Summers (Geppetto), Mary Plazas (The Blue Fairy), Rebecca Bottone (Cricket), Mark Wilde (Cat), James Laing (Fox), Graeme Broadbent (Ringmaster) and Allan Clayton (Lampwick)...”
Fox: The Adventures of Pinocchio / Opera North / The Independent on Sunday

“…James Laing as Raphael, a countertenor with a lovely, ringing voice who effects a gentle kindness that is positively alluring.”
Raphael: Tobias and the Angel / English Touring Opera / Evening Standard

“…made the Archangel Raphael into an aloof yet smiling guiding light. His countertenor had no problems with Dove’s winging lines, and every word of David Lan’s libretto came across.’
Raphael: Tobias and the Angel / English Touring Opera / Opera

“Standouts among the principals included James Laing’s airy countertenor Stranger, finally revealed as the angel Raphael.”
Raphael: Tobias and the Angel / English Touring Opera / Opera Now

“James Laing’s stillness and sweet countertenor make an impact as the Angel…”
Raphael: Tobias and the Angel / English Touring Opera / The Stage

“…James Laing’s liquid countertenor and skimpy physique prove perfect casting for the angel…”
Raphael: Tobias and the Angel / English Touring Opera / The Times

“But one character, the Nerone of countertenor James Laing almost stole the show…Laing is clearly at home on the stage, and this voice is flexible and precise, tonally consistent throughout the range, firm, focused and beautiful. Of him we shall surely hear much more.”
Nerone: Agrippina / London Handel Festival / Evening Standard

"Of the professional performers, James Laing as the angel sings a haunting countertenor..."
Raphael: Tobias and the Angel / Young Vic / Daily Mail

"The singing from the soloists is superb, particularly the soaring countertenor of James Laing..."
Raphael: Tobias and the Angel / Young Vic / The Daily Telegraph

"And counter-tenor James Laing endows the stranger, who turns out to be Raphael, with a mysterious serenity."
Raphael: Tobias and the Angel / Young Vic / The Guardian

"...countertenor James Laing’s ethereal stranger..."
Raphael: Tobias and the Angel / Young Vic / The Independent

" James Laing's haunting counter-tenor melodies set against a sparse orchestral accompaniment, transport the audience to a mystical, spiritual world."
Raphael: Tobias and the Angel / Young Vic / This is Local London

" One moment shows other reasons for Lan to have chosen this for the opening of the new Young Vic. James Laing, who has played an incognito guardian angel as a fairly average guy in a white anorak - though his arms have a tendency to fold up into a wing-shape - has a seraphic coming out: a wonderful, eerie, unadorned counter-tenor spree."
Raphael: Tobias and the Angel / Young Vic / The Observer

"I was captivated by this show and, no less, by the three central performers...above all, the countertenor James Laing who played the angel / stranger with a streetwise, ultra cool inscreutability - a beautiful beggar poised between heaven and homelessness."
Raphael: Tobias and the Angel / The Young Vic / Opera Now

"James Laing's sublime counter-tenor leaves no doubt of Raphael's origins."
Raphael: Tobias and the Angel / The Young Vic / Evening Standard

" Dove’s hauntingly beautiful score is thrillingly sung by these huge forces under David Charles Abell’s expert baton, with counter-tenor James Laing in particularly stirring voice as the stranger - the angel Raphael - who accompanies Tobias on his journey to retrieve a debt of his father’s and comes back with both a wife and a cure for his father’s blindness."
Raphael: Tobias and the Angel / Young Vic / The Stage

"...James Laing’s ethereal Stranger..."
Raphael: Tobias and the Angel / Young Vic / The Times

“…what made the evening explode were two sensational performances by James Laing as the most vividly psychopathic Nero and Sarah–Jane Davies as his equally avoidable Ma. Laing is a Counter–tenor with the clearest tone, a big range, magnetic presence and more emotion than most.”
Nerone: Agrippina / London Handel Festival / The Times

"...Freston's sweet, shimmering, beautifully mobile, technically faultless soprano and Laing's serene countertenor stole the show..."
Medoro: Orlando / The Early Opera Company / Independent on Sunday

"...James Laing, whose extraordinarily limpid, clear countertenor, needle-sharp in diction and intonation, should take him a long way."
Medoro: Orlando / The Early Opera Company / Opera Now

“Martene Grimson (Hyacinthus), William Purefoy (Apollo), and James Laing (Zephyrus) give elegant support.”
Zephryus: Apollo and Hyacinthus / Classical Opera Company / The Independent

“Countertenors William Purefoy as Apollo and James Laing as Zephyrus added to the magic with fine acting.”
Zephryus: Apollo and Hyacinthus / Classical Opera Company / Musical Opinion

“And the elegant countertenor James Laing sang songs by English composers from the Tudor period with a voice of ineffable beauty and effectiveness.”
Other Shakespearean Dreams / The Liceu, Barcelona / La Vanguardia