“Michelson’s challenging and tonally complex music is some of the most unique and beautiful I’ve heard in musical theater. The high-flying trills, warm harmonies, and legato articulation of singular words (“God” sung in about 20 descending notes, like a wail) really help establish the emotional landscape of this alien world struggling with the same issues we face in our own. When she writes music for the river one imagines that this is what the prophets heard when receiving the word of God.”