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Harper's most impressive achievement is that he's found a way to divorce rock opera from song form, to make vernacular music continuous without falling into the staticness of Ashley or Glass. Kyle Gann, Village Voice Harper has the singular ability to be able to write long - seemingly unending - legato musical lines of extraordinary beauty, and to be able to compose for the human voice as well. In this sense his writing reminds me of that of Bellini. Bravo for this premiere! Patrick Smith, Opera News Harper's sensual, electronic score adds resonances and nuances that confound the literal and specific. Instead of the expected local color - Oriental Idioms - he uses American pop: gospel, rock and rap recitations. Rather than a series of stop and go numbers, the music flows organically and dramatically from one idiom to another, highlighted and supported by the inventive electronic instrumentation. Michael Anthony, Minneapolis Star Tribune