By Allan Ulrich [Financial Times, 7 November 2005]
Under its departing director Pamela Rosenberg, the San Francisco Opera has conquered the most problematic of Verdi’s mature works with a gripping production. The producer Ron Daniels’s scheme generally shuns realistic detail and embraces the inherent crudities and catchpenny coincidences of Francisco Piave’s libretto, transforming them into an epic of cosmic absurdity.