"Horror and empathy"

Jorge Calado | Expresso, 01.03.14

(...) When things are made properly and there´s a huge amount of talent, a masterpiece is born. That's what happened. (...) Mendonça sees the unfolding of the plot as the fall into a tilted plane or the evolution of a downward spiral - a sort of tightening of the screw, that points out to another ghostly novella, Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, set into music by Benjamin Britten (also written for a dozen instruments). Mendonça is, therefore, in good company and he rises up to the confrontation. Framed by Alex Eales' meticulously realistic set, the staging is exquisite. Oliver Dunn´s and Kitty Whately´s performances are simply immaculate. (...) Mendonça uses strings, winds and an astonishing percussion set very wisely, in order to create strange compound timbres and colours, crazy rhythms, shocking dissonances, ethereal glissandi (...) The opera stars with a chill - is it the wind? - and ends in an unexpected but very well designed climax. International suceess is guaranteed. (...)