"After so many disappointing productions, it's exciting to watch one which casts a lurid new light on this disturbing opera ... freeing the production from the demands of straight realism ... All this, though, is icing on a cake whose substance is the outstanding performances by John Daszak, exuding well-meaning civilised weariness as Aschenbach, and the glinty-eyed, sinuous Leigh Melrose who plays and sings the various sinister characters who by turns torment and seduce Aschenbach".