Anna Karenina

"The well-crafted lyrical score, ably conducted by the Florida Grand Opera's music director, Stewart Robertson...Mr. Carlson wrote for a 19th-century Russian orchestra with one exception: a vibraphone used to signal Anna's descent into madness... The pace quickened at the end of the first act, and the second act more consistently hit the mark, musically and dramatically. Anna's death scene was riveting as she stumbled in an opium-induced haze punctuated by loud bells and grittier music." -- Vivien Schweitzer, The New York Times

"The well-crafted lyrical score, ably conducted by the Florida Grand Opera's music director, Stewart Robertson...Mr. Carlson wrote for a 19th-century Russian orchestra with one exception: a vibraphone used to signal Anna's descent into madness... The pace quickened at the end of the first act, and the second act more consistently hit the mark, musically and dramatically. Anna's death scene was riveting as she stumbled in an opium-induced haze punctuated by loud bells and grittier music." -- Vivien Schweitzer, The New York Times