The Metropolitan Opera: The Exterminating Angel

Nov 18, 2017

2h 22m

★ 7.7

Overview

After the acclaimed Met premiere of Thomas Adès's "The Tempest" in 2012, the composer returned with another masterpiece, this time inspired by filmmaker Luis Buñuel's seminal surrealist classic "El Ángel Exterminador", during the 2017–18 season. As the opera opens, a group of elegant socialites gather for a lavish dinner party, but when it is time to leave for the night, no one is able to escape. Soon, their behavior becomes increasingly erratic and savage. The large ensemble cast tackles both the vocal and dramatic demands of Adès's opera with one riveting performance after another. Tom Cairns, who also penned the work's libretto, directs an engrossing and inventive production, using a towering wooden archway to trap the characters onstage. And Adès himself takes the podium to conduct the frenzied score, which features a host of unconventional instruments, including the eerie electronic ondes Martenot.

Genres

Fantasy

Music

Production Companies

The Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera: The Exterminating Angel Trailers

Cast

Edmundo de Nobile

Joseph Kaiser

Lucía de Nobile

Amanda Echalaz

Leticia Maynar

Audrey Luna

Leonora Palma

Alice Coote

Silvia de Ávila

Sally Matthews

Francisco de Ávila

Iestyn Davies

Blanca Delgado

Christine Rice

Alberto Roc

Rodney Gilfry

Beatriz

Sophie Bevan

Raúl Yebenes

Frédéric Antoun

Eduardo

David Portillo

Colonel Álvaro Gómez

David Adam Moore

It's an event that draws many thousands of music lovers to one of the most beautiful cities in the world every summer: the opera season at the ancient Arena di Verona. The 2,000-year-old roman amphiteatre with its gigantic stage dimensions is one of the largest and best preserved Roman construction of its kind, and with over 22,000 seats it is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular open-air venues of the world! The revered master of opera Franco Zeffirelli, who died shortly before the premiere of Il Trovatore, created a legendary scenery with groups of giant sized armoured knights, a fortress turning into a luminous cathedral, an enormous choir, horses, breathtaking fights: “his perhaps best arena production” (Opernglas). It brings Anna Netrebko to the Arena of Verona where she is giving her much-anticipated debut in one of Giuseppe Verdi’s most popular operas.

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