Presented as part of American Opera Projects'

    Jennifer Griffith artfully weaves together a wonderful tapestry of musical passion and humor — she's a kindred spirit to Richard Strauss, unafraid of wanton borrowing — and with an uncanny mastery of operatic tradition. And frankly, she has the ability to write with the range, intensity, passion — and balanced moodshifts of a Strauss. This little vignette shows mastery of craft and is intensely funny.

    Mark Greenfest of the New Music Connoisseur

Griffith pairs a seductively-attired (dominatrix) singer/speaker with a chamber orchestra, each member of which, at one laugh-inducing point, sings two lines of "We Are the World," when international policy is invoked in the spoken text. Sample a few lines: "Have you been naughty again? Do I have to punish you for taking advantage of that--employee? Drop you pants and come to your mistress you bad little boy!," and you might get the drift. The whole piece is whimsical, dreamlike indeed, and it certainly more than kept my attention. At times, I couldn't help being swept up by a gentle yet indescribable wave of nostagia.

--New Music Connoisseur