[Marin Alsop’s] magnificent performance of “The Black Mask” was probably preceded by a meticulous analysis of the work. She conducted the opera with extraordinary clarity and awareness of the sonic effect that Penderecki enshrined in the masterful instrumentation of the work. She set in motion a purely sonic total theater, shocking especially in the last phase of the work, in which soloists, chorus and orchestra personify the crowd of Bolkow’s inhabitants, smothered with horror and premonition of death. Alsop heard echoes of Penderecki’s “St. Luke Passion” in this section of the piece. […] Her interpretation was masterful – characterized by her control of every chord, every sound sequence, and her ability to create heated emotions.