Getty's style derives from nineteenth-century antecedents, rather than from anything more recent: Mussorgsky, for some reason, seemed the dominant influence here, both in the harmony and in the orchestration (which frequently recalled Pictures at an Exhibition in Rimsky-Korsakov's large-scale treatment of his late colleague's piano original). The extensive text is set in a kind of parlando manner that once again could be related to Mussorgsky's practice. The result is neither especially memorable nor original, but it does mark an advance over Plump Jack, Getty's earlier Falstaff opera, even if the word-setting remains effortful when not clumsy and the general level of technical skills fairly limited.