“AN ASTONISHINGLY VISCERAL WINTERREISE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY.”
“THIS IS WHAT CONTEMPORARY OPERA SHOULD BE LIKE.”

— Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine

"BACKWARDS FROM WINTER HAD ITS PREMIER AS PART OF THE NEW YORK OPERA FEST. ALL THE PARTS THAT MAKE UP OPERA ARE UNIFIED ON STAGE TO CREATE AN ENORMOUSLY SATISFYING THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE."

"We are under a canopy of nature, sometimes melancholy and at others joyous. Briegel's clarity of tone is amplified. None of the electronic music turned shrill. Composer Knehans has a sense of the right balance between what is human and what is not. The sometimes abrasive cello lines fit perfectly in the sound cloud.
Winding backwards from grief to the joy of spring and awakening leaves both the artists and the audience in a good place."
— BERKSHIRE FINE ARTS on New York City World Premiere

“…THIS MODERN OPERA IS REMARKABLE…AS A PACKAGE IT MADE FOR A THOUGHT PROVOKING PRODUCTION.”

"The first object to notice when entering the dimly lit hall was an upturned car; haze emerging from somewhere near its roof that was pressing into the ground, indicating a fatal accident had recently taken place. In front, a catwalk-like stage was set and a solo electric cellist and vocalist (Antonis Pratsinakis) waited at the far end. The audience was seated parallel to this long stage, which was covered with a sheet of white pillows; over this, projections of various shapes and colours were cast to indicate the mood of the opera."
"I did take pleasure in the full experience of this opera. It's darkness matched the sex-and-death themes of the Dark Mofo festival."
— LIMELIGHT MAGAZINE on the Australian Premiere Season

WINNER OF TWO GOLD MEDALS AT THE GLOBAL MUSIC AWARDS

SPOTIFY

YOUTUBE

APPLE MUSIC

BACKWARDS FROM WINTER
Superbly engineered recording

“The recording is stunning…it is hard to credit that this is indeed live from that perspective.”
FANFARE MAGAZINE

Brilliant Australian sound engineer Greg Gurr produced a beautiful live capture of this performance that allowed multi-Grammy Award winning mastering engineer Silas Brown to bring out every nuance of this work. A brilliant team with remarkable results.

BACKWARDS FROM WINTER
An Opera for Our Times

“An astonishingly visceral Winterreise for the 21st century…”
”One of Knehans’s finest musical statements, this is a stunning release. This is what contemporary opera should be like.”
FANFARE MAGAZINE