Critics call PAUL'S CASE a "Masterpiece"

Gregory Spears' opera Paul's Case received high praise for its recent sold-out NYC premiere at PROTOtype Festival. Press called it a "masterpiece...tempting to call it 'the best new opera I've heard in years'" (NY Observer) and "a taut, splendid operatic adaptation" (NY Times). Spears' vocal writing was lauded as "ravishing" and "especially admirable" and librettist Kathryn Walat's adaptation of the original Willa Cather short story "finely made" (New York Classical Review). Jonathan Blalock, who reprised his role from the opera's premiere at UrbanArias last April, had "even more theatrical and vocal authority as Paul" (Wall Street Journal). AOP began development of the opera during the 2008-09 season of Composers & the Voice. A new production of the opera will appear at Pittsburgh Opera in February.