How Glass manages to spin out such a basic idea over a two-hour structure without the music ever loosening its grip on the listener is nothing short of remarkable...The hundred-plus Bruckner Orchestra...massed chorus and soloists of the Landestheater with Dennis Russell Davies directing, contribute much to the opera's dual sense of mystery and monumentality.

This quite vivid recording is taken from the staged performances, though the work itself generally seems far closer to a contemplative secular oratorio than to a fully fledged piece of theatre...[Winkel's libretto is] presented in neatly dovetailed solo and choral writing, with Glass's often dark orchestral textures churning beneath.