From the NY Times
March 14, 2005
Kafka on Trial, Opera Fans in Heaven
COPENHAGEN, March 13 - The inaugural production at the new $441 million home of the Royal Danish Opera was a traditional staging of Verdi's "Aida," which opened in late January. This conventional choice was mandated by the 91-year-old Maersk McKinney Moller, Denmark's wealthiest man, who footed the bill for the complex and, more controversially, inserted himself into its design.
But as a statement of artistic purpose, as a bid by this adventurous company to join the top ranks of international opera, the true opening of the house took place on Saturday night with the premiere of "Proces Kafka" ("Kafka's Trial") by the Danish composer Poul Ruders and the British librettist Paul Bentley, their second major collaboration. Mr. Ruders is a prodigiously skilled and daringly imaginative craftsman, and "Kafka's Trial" is a brilliant achievement: a grotesquely comic, bitterly satirical and, ultimately, deeply moving work that hooks you for two onrushing and uninterrupted hours.