"Conductor Maazel was originally asked the the director of a Munich opera house to compose a new opera for him. Maazel reread Orwell's book and felt it was a perfect choice from which to build an opera, but the director of the opera house suddenly died. Covent Garden later approached Maazel and he went to work on the story's denunciation of a world in which the individual is enslaved to an idea and an absolute power -- represented by Big Brother. He felt that since Orwell used a most realistic and objective approach, the narrative process would be most effective, with every scene unsettling the viewer."--John Sunier, Audiophile Audition.