Togni’s music is wonderfully easy on the ear.  Much of the time it’s pentatonic, the vocal lines following the kind of direct expressive logic opera composers have mostly avoided for the past century.  At times there’s pattern music, the minimalist meditation we’ve seen from Glass or Adams, while at other times the textures are subtle, Togni’s easy arioso gobbling up large chunks of text, effortlessly telling the story.

The sound-world of Peter-Anthony Togni’s Responsio is completely unique. The great 14th century masterpiece Messe de Nostre Dame by Guillaume de Machaut is completely enveloped in the 21st century sound of a composer emerging as one of Canada’s greats.

…one of the most promising new Canadian operas I have seen in years. Togni’s music transports the audience to a unique soundworld that is somehow both ancient and modern, secular and religious at the same time.