"Editor's choice: In Carsen's hands ... there's no gore or even much grotesque here ... but far from unemotional. This is thanks both to strong casting and Dantone's impossibly rich, inventive orchestral realisation ... guiding the ear as effectively as any designer ... But it is Workman and his Penelope, Delphine Galou, who give Carsen's understatement anchoring gravitas and feeling. There's a nobility to Workman's hero ... that finds answer in Galou's staunch queen, who can turn her contralto from sexless, countertenor coolness to sudden youth and warmth in an instant. The final scene is breathless in its musical inventions: taking us from numbness to a rapturous, erotic ending in a thrilling tumble of musical action after so much suspension".
