NRC Handelsblad“All this calamity is given an extra dramatic meaning by the dozens of paintings that are projected in the background, from Jeroen Bosch and Caravaggio to Goya and Francis Bacon. (...) Espinoza sings penetratingly about the murdered people who are like ‘shadows on the walls of your conscience ‘. (...) Composer Floris van Bergeijk makes the soloists and the Rosa Ensemble sound tight and intense in long, melodic lines."
Theaterkrant“Floris van Bergeijk wrote a varied score, with beautiful polyphonic choral passages, lyrical melody lines, dramatically swelling dissonances and a good ear for timbre. The singers and musicians are also excellent, Aylin Sezer impresses particularly, with her pure soprano voice and impeccable diction…there is a lot to enjoy, both musically and visually. And the message that we are all the other to someone else is of course rock solid. “
Leeuwarder Courant“What a remarkable film it has become. (...) The film, like the opera itself, is an attractive, very accessible and light-footed mixture of styles. From paintings by Velazquez and Jeroen Bosch that move as in the animations of Terry Gilliam, to a leap to ‘our’ time with a choir of young neo-fascists, who are reminiscent of the gang from A Clockwork Orange. Xenophobia is timeless.” “The opera plays very cinematically with flashbacks, mutual deception and with dreams of Friesland as a safe place and even fragments of Frisian in the libretto. Filming opera is a laborious endeavor: the theatricality of a stage performance quickly clashes with the more intimate character of film. The Others has found a very good compromise.”
Place de l’Opera“Opera Spanga’s artistic leader and director Corina van Eijk has succeeded well in forging all this into a coherent whole, compliments for that. The three protagonists also deserve a lot of praise for their interpretations. Baritone David Visser is convincing in his role of a young sailor who is easy to like, even when he behaves like a hooligan and is given a chance to confirm his manhood. Tenor Eric Reddet gives a solid rendition of the doomed Espinoza. (...) Aylin Sezer is ideally cast as Cesaria. I like to hear her sing, I like her voice. In her acting, she makes Cesaria a credible character, dyed in the wool because she always had to take care of herself, and able to play her men like a piano.”
