"Appomattox" reviews

Reviews have appeared.

From the Contra Costa Times:
Music: "Characteristically spare and rhythmic, it moves forward unrelentingly."
Libretto: "Exquisitely crafted."
Staging: "Bold," surreal."
Cast: "Tremendous vigor," "well cast."
Overall: "Stark, haunting and darkly elegiac."

From the Bloomberg wire:
Music: "A significant work, to my mind one of the best new operas in many years."
Libretto: "Sweeping."
Staging: "A stunning visual coup," "powerful."
Cast: "Outstanding."
Overall: "An unforgettable evening," "a night for the history books."

From the San Jose Mercury News:
Music: "Unremitting ... minor chord progressions," "a lean and dark harmonic language."
Libretto: "Seems to have been stitched together on deadline," "ham-fisted."
Staging: "Spectacular."
Cast: "Generally strong," "overall lack of animation."
Overall: "A match from hell: never-ending Glass and never-ending war."

From the New York Times:
Music: "Weak," "strangely tepid," "[Glass] simply did not work hard enough."
Libretto: "Preachy,"
Staging: "Lean and effective."
Cast: "Intelligently restrained," "admirable."
Overall: "This earnest, sometimes alluring, frustratingly ineffective opera seems a missed opportunity."

From the San Francisco Chronicle:
Music: "Sinewy vigor," "rhythmic vitality," "not particularly well suited to dramatic action."
Libretto: "Dramatically flaccid," "runs aground,"

Staging: "Austere, beautiful," "Too insistently symbolic."
Cast: "Powerful," "exciting," "robust."
Overall: "Ambitious and maddeningly inconsistent."

From the Examiner wire:
Music: "Dirgelike variations of the same repeated chords, rising and falling arpeggios and simple drones."
Libretto: "Kudos."
Staging: "Unflinchingly captures war’s brutality."
Cast: "Gratifying," "bravo."
Overall: "Invoke[s] thoughts of masterpiece."