The critic Marie-Aude Roux said French audiences expected much from the opera, which premiered at the Glyndebourne Festival in the summer of 2008, but the expected even more of the composer of such other works as Three Sisters, Angels in America and Lady Sarshina.
Eötvös breaks from all known forms in his vocal composition, making magic of the piece with a carefully shaped musical accompaniment that is especially effect in the slow parts, the critic said.
French culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand conceded at the Strasbourg premiere that it was the first time he had heard Eötvös?s work and called it ?a pleasant surprise?.
Eötvös?s profile in France is higher than one may think. In 1978, at the invitation of Pierre Boulez, he conducted the inaugural concert of IRCAM in Paris, and was subsequently named musical director of the Ensemble InterContemporain, a post he held until 1991.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
