Just to thank you for a most beautiful and interesting evening yesterday. Your opera is very fine, a moving and inventive evening of music-theatre. I think you have a great gift of lyricism; there were many lovely sections, especially the end of act 1… I can see the Janacek influence! But your voice is different, and the sonorities are very individual. I loved the scoring – the harp especially radiant. The piece is inspiringly positive – DAVID SYRUS, HEAD OF MUSIC THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE 1993–2017

A tremendous achievement – getting it written and then getting it done !!!

Many many congratulations. – TONY PALMER, FILM AND OPERA DIRECTOR

It was a real pleasure to have you on the programme, and we loved the music and the interview. – HELEN GARRISON: IN TUNE BBC RADIO 3

Good luck for getting more performances; it’s a great show and deserves to be widely heard. What a gigantic undertaking! Such a powerful story and your music supported it wonderfully! – DAVID ROBLOU/Musical Director of Midsummer Opera

Congratulations on this massive undertaking and on such a successful outcome, .. you did an amazing job with the opera and I truly hope it has a life beyond this – CHRIS GRIST Director of London Concertante

I was just writing to say how much I enjoyed your opera … It really is a captivating story and, in my opinion, this work definitely deserves a second outing… and more… so I’m hoping that you will have the chance to have it performed again in the not too distant future – LYNN MCADAM Opera Director

It was a triumph, … a sort of modern day Debussy à la Pelléas et Mélisande: it's a unique voice though… you inspired the whole thing to will what was on the page into being and you all deserved the rapturous reception it received – MIKE THORNE Conductor Saffron Opera

I have to say am suitably impressed with your composition … I have nothing but admiration for your skills as a composer/conductor … Your music has great clarity and harmonic vision and moments of serene beauty and a wonderfully luminous quality – I hope that these first performances were not just a 'one-off' and that it will receive many more productions as it so richly deserves – GERARD DELREZ/ The work deserves to be heard as much as possible – JULIAN DEBREUIL/Last night was a triumph; for you and for everyone involved. I particularly liked the way the story unfolded … There were powerful moments and touching ones, cleverly juxtaposed to maintain interest without recourse to the sensational. I was also fascinated by the score, contemporarily melodic and sympathetic to the libretto but at times spare with absolutely nowhere for anyone to hide … I do hope everyone can fully appreciate what is being achieved here – FRAN LAMBERT/ It was an excellent show … I wish you a lot of success with the work and hopefully it will open doors to plenty more! – ANDRE ANDRADE/ Compelling and very moving music – NICK EVANS-PUGHE/ This sounds wonderful … I enjoyed the balance between lyrical beauty and dramatic intensity. The music challenged and soothed. The opera is both contained and passionate, private yet shared – ROBERT BYFORD/ Gorgeous. Bravo you! – JAMES HANCOCK/ It’s absolutely beautiful – JAMES BERRY/ It is the most beautiful and evocative piece of writing – JULIAN CLOSE/ We really enjoyed it…It was very impressive, especially considering it was your first work – ALICE WAINRIGHT/… a terrific piece and truly enjoyable evening. You are so very talented and you can be very proud of what you achieved... I am already looking forward to your next masterpiece! – EIKE DAVIS/ It was a privilege!!. All very exciting and amazing – MARGARET CARPENTER/ It is an intriguing piece and I am sure it will be well received – JOHN ROUSSETY/ It was a privilege and pleasure to come to your opera. It was truly amazing – a very involving experience which has stayed with me – really a very powerful piece. It is an amazing accomplishment to have written and staged an opera – GILLIAN STANSFIELD/ …it is a wonderfully intense and moving piece – GERARD MCCANN/ Your writing … was absolutely exquisite. The tonality, the lyricism, the orchestration and, most impressively for me, the vocal writing were all really top notch. I sincerely hope… that you will be writing more of this calibre in the future! – NINA BENNET/ I was left quite emotional…I was so pleased for and proud of your achievement – though there was a lot of that – but also because of the work itself. Finney meets Janacek, Adams, turn of the r screw, Copland and Wagner – a happy melange! And so we’ll put together. Stunning cast and musicians …Great team and great result – RUPERT MCSHANE/ The opera sounded truly amazing – ALAN BAIN/ A big work – content-wise and music-wise, with much food for thought on all levels – and you in superb control. You …offered us a deeply moving portrait of what our lives are about…Thank you to everyone and especially to you for giving us this big experience – MARIA HARLAN/ You can be very proud of your achievement – the sounds, the deliberate disharmonies, the use of the individual instruments, the hard “bangs” coming from the harp, and so on, all this was very exciting – JAN HARLAN/ Firstly, many congratulations of this work… It was all perfect. The music was sublime. We loved the musical interludes. The overall tone was moving and stunning with its emotional impact – JONATHAN CAMERON/ Wow – a wonderful first opera! I detected some Hitchcock moments, some wonderful dramatic effects (and birdsong), and above all was taken seamlessly and emotionally to where you directed us. The music set the pace for the drama, as it should. Well done, sir! – JEROME BOOTH/…your achievement is even more than stupendous – but I don’t have the words. … the voice was your own and it came over loud and clear – PHILIP AUSTIN/ Congratulation on tonight's premiere, A Kind Man is a terrific piece and the work and the performance and the production came across very strongly and triumphed. The score is fascinating – DOMINIC NUDD/ Loved all the colours in your orchestration. Great work! – DOMINIC HARLAN/ Astonishing, brilliant, accomplished, touching, a sensitive… a few words that spring to mind thinking about last night. – SIMON CARTER/ I was totally blown away by the beauty of it. It sounded like this opera has been in the repertoire for ever - in a good way! The orchestration was perfect. – Rosie Coupe.

Feedback from the orchestra

A Kind Man is an opera masterpiece where drama, excitement and complexity of harmonies come together.

The Opera was written with a very high quality music taste. The way that the singing lines mixed with the melodies of the orchestra players is stunning.

JACOB REIN CARO, Orchestra Leader

Working on A Kind Man was a pleasure, and a very new experience for me. Accompanying opera with such a small ensemble was quite new and gave off a very intimate atmosphere! The music was also a great experience ... and interpreting it was a very rewarding challenge. Overall I hope my future experiences with contemporary music will be as artistically stimulating as this one!

LORENZO NARICI, Violinist