comparisons to police procedurals on TV. The Independent dismissed it as "Prime Suspect with a soundtrack of semi-skimmed Glass." In The Guardian, which has frequently commissioned guest columns from Muhly, Andrew Clements dismissed the opera as "a bland mid-Atlantic compromise" with a musical idiom "pitched somewhere between recent Philip Glass and the John Adams of The Death of Klinghoffer." Writing in The Londonist, Sam Smith concurred, "Muhly's music...is interesting but can feel underwhelming and derivative." So So Gay panned the production as "an operatic misadventure" and "a dreary letdown", and agreeing that the music "is minimalist to the point of being unexciting". In The Financial Times, Andrew Clark felt the opera was underwhelming and that "the fault lies in Muhly's generic minimalism. The orchestral accompaniment, rarely breaking out of a steady moderato, has the quality of a soundtrack. Vocal lines are singable but impersonal...'Accessible' hovers over every bar." Recording Nonesuch Records released the first recording of Two Boys, from the Metropolitan Opera production, on September 30, 2014. References 2011 operas Operas by Nico Muhly English-language operas Operas Operas set in the British Isles Operas set in the 21st century Operas based on actual events Nonesuch Records albums Opera world premieres at the English National Opera