catán composed his music in a neo-romantic and lyrical style. "opera news" stated that his music had "a distinctive lushness that seemed of a piece with the twentieth century's great movie music yet remained unquestionably operatic in scope." accountable to constraints of their commissions, catán’s compositions stand clearly self-contained. music critic david patrick stearns wrote, "though catán's style was often compared to that of puccini and debussy, it changed with every work, from the lush nature painting of "florencia en el amazonas" (1996) to the cuban ethnic influences of "salsipuedes" (2004), and the more integrated sonorities that portrayed the inner emotions of "il postino" (2010). other critics noted the influences of richard strauss and heitor villa-lobos with his orchestral structures.