Opera in two acts. Libretto by William Ball after Turgenev. Hoiby's music adds a rich dimension to Turgenev, both compatible and enlarging. His new score is one of the finest for an American opera in many years, technically complete and dramatically correct.
Thematic music runs from character to character with deep understanding.
Underlying orchestral support is not simply structural but comments, underlines and explains. He has kept his music very airy, tinged here with irony, there with despair . . . Its mood of resigned farewell is akin to that of the Rosenkavalier trio, or, differently, to the Meistersinger quintet. This is a supreme moment in opera, and Hoiby's genius has done nothing finer. He is a compose standing on his own.