***** The Express
'Director Rodula Gaitanou has brought out the feverish psychosis that burns through the intense melodrama with its chilling supernatural twist.'

***** Classicalsource.com
'a highlight of recent seasons'

**** The Telegraph
'Opera Holland Park delivers a corker with its sumptuous new production of The Queen of Spades, Tchaikovsky’s most sophisticated and ambitious work for the theatre... an enthralling performance.'

**** The Independent
'Rodula Gaitanou's production is directed, designed, conducted, lit, and choreographed with wonderful assurance.'

**** The Times
'A frightful success.'

**** The Evening Standard
'A work of hallucinatory intensity that chills the soul... Cordelia Chisholm's set gradually acquires sinister aspects to match the story's darkening mood. By the time we reach the final act, everything has become nightmarish and the singing reaches feverpitch.' 

**** The Stage
'The masked ball (marvellous costumes here and indeed throughout), the Countess's bedroom and the gambling den are superbly visualised'

Bachtrack
'Cordelia Chisholm's beautifully crafted confection of evening dress and military uniforms - none more so than the all-black-and-gold tableau for the masked ball scene.
This Queen of Spades is quite superbly staged.'

Seen and Heard International
'This is a remarkable opera, and it deserves a remarkable staging and performance such as this.'