Regarding the music, Holland noted: There are angry clashes of harmony and key, many Straussian gestures, sweet-as-honey popular melody and the kinds of corporate noodling and mumbling among the strings native to a Ligeti or a Penderecki.
Other reviews have criticized the lengthy libretto (reportedly the Williams estate required a close following of the play), music that does not advance the characters or action, and does not much suggest New Orleans of the 1940s.