By George Loomis [NY Times, 15 September 2010]
COPENHAGEN — Widely recognized as Denmark’s leading composer, Poul Ruders established himself as a major force in opera with “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a harrowing treatment of Margaret Atwood’s futuristic best-seller that received its premiere at the Royal Danish Opera in 2000. This gripping work led Anthony Tommasini, writing in The New York Times in 2001, to observe that Mr. Ruders “seems to have a Verdian understanding of the genre.”