The Exterminating Angel

Opera National de Paris

The Exterminating Angel — Plot

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.

• Release date
• February 29, 2024
• Runtime
• 119 min
• Genres
• Music
• Director
• Calixto Bieito

The Exterminating Angel — Cast

J

Jacquelyn Stucker Lucia de Nobile

G

Gloria Tronel Leticia Meynar

H

Hilary Summers Leonora Palma

C

Claudia Boyle Silvia de Avila Christine Rice Blanca Delgado

A

Amina Edris Beatriz

N

Nicky Spence Edmundo de Nobile

F

Frédéric Antoun Comte Raul Ybenes