The Exterminating Angel

The story

After last season’s The Dante Project, the Paris Opera continues to explore the music of contemporary composer Thomas Adès with the French premiere of The Exterminating Angel. Inspired by Luis Buñuel’s 1962 surrealist film, which offered a scathing critique of the bourgeoisie, the work begins with a dinner among upper-class friends in a plush mansion after an opera performance. But, gradually, a mysterious force prevents the fifteen guests from leaving the reception. In this confinement for no apparent reason, drawn out over several days, the veneer of propriety cracks, revealing the worst of human nature. Thomas Adès has written a rich and tense score, amplifying the libretto’s strange atmosphere with unusual instruments such as the ondes Martenot. The Paris Opera has entrusted the staging of this huis-clos to Calixto Bieito. The director has long been fascinated by Buñuel’s universe.

Cast

J Jacquelyn StuckerLucia de Nobile G Gloria TronelLeticia Meynar H Hilary SummersLeonora Palma C Claudia BoyleSilvia de Avila C Christine RiceBlanca Delgado A Amina EdrisBeatriz N Nicky SpenceEdmundo de Nobile F Frédéric AntounComte Raul Ybenes J Jarett OttColonel Alvaro Gomez A Anthony Roth CostanzoFrancisco de Avila F Filipe ManuEduardo P Philippe SlySenor Russel

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P Paul GayAlberto Roc T Thomas AdèsConductor