Tim Ashley [Guardian, 16 March 2006]

The Tobias Picker phenomenon is puzzling. Born in New York in 1954, the composer is popular in the US, where companies such as the Los Angeles Opera and the Met have regularly commissioned and premiered his work. In the UK, however, he remains something of an unknown quantity, a fact that the newly formed Opera-te (Opera Theatre Europe) is aiming to correct with the British premiere of Picker's third opera.