Marin Alsop’s April 23 debut at The Metropolitan Opera, conducting the company premiere of John Adams’s El Niño, is a critically acclaimed triumph. 

The New York Times raves: 

“Alsop’s musical interpretation beautifully suits the production concept….[she] kept the rhythm insistent but chose a slightly slow tempo, loosening the tight weave of the instrumental parts and transforming its mechanical effect into something more organic. Woodwinds breathed, and guitars turned hypnotic. The orchestra flourished.”

From The Philadelphia Inquirer: 

“Alsop had Adams’ orchestrally virtuosic score locking into place at every turn. Like Ravel, Adams’ music seems deceptively effortless when done well but reveals its serious challenges when not. As with Alsop’s recent disc of Adams orchestral pieces (works include Fearful Symmetries on the Naxos label), she and the great Metropolitan Opera Orchestra felt the music’s propulsion without ever seeming mechanical, navigated all hair-trigger turns, revealed passages that are meant to sound medieval, and fused it all with a keen sense of overall connection. Alsop, now 67, has had a long road to the Met. Now here, she delivered.”

Performances continue through May 17.