by Andrew Clements
"David Fielding's production for Grange Park Opera is the first here to be sung in Russian and, while it's easy to understand why it has been neglected, the increasingly implausible plot and grande guignol finale carry with them some astonishing, full-blooded music, in which Tchaikovsky's melodic invention is at full throttle."
by Rupert Christiansen
"Enchantress David Fielding's powerful production transports the action to a modern Russian provincial city, decorated in livid pink and inhabited by drunken military and well-heeled Mafia. It builds to a startling climax of surreal mayhem, but otherwise plays it for all the B-picture realism it's worth."
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by Hans-Theodor Wohlfahrt
"David Fielding, responsible for production and design, as well as his lighting designer Wolfgang Goebbel, created a contemporary Russian spectacle of sheer exuberance, be it in life or death. The casting could not have been better anywyhere. Everybody was outstanding. The last scene, when Mamirov thriumphs over a self inflicted bloodbath, resembled a Last Judgement painted by Dali."
