The Exterminating Angel is an English-language opera in three acts, with music by Thomas Adès, and libretto by Tom Cairns in collaboration with Adès. The opera is based on the 1962 film of the same name by Luis Buñuel. The opera, Adès' third, was a joint commission between the Salzburg Festival, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Danish Opera.
The opera received its world premiere on 28 July 2016, at the Haus für Mozart, Salzburg. Adès' first-ever commission for the Salzburg Festival, the Salzburg production received four performances. The UK premiere was at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, on 24 April 2017. The North American premiere took place on 26 October of the same year at the Metropolitan Opera. For all of these stagings, Cairns was the stage director, with sets and costumes by Hildegard Bechtler, lighting by Jon Clark, videography by Tal Yarden, and choreography by Amir Hosseinpour.
Adès had been interested in adapting the film into an opera since 2000. Copyright issues over the film and the commission for Adès' second opera, The Tempest, delayed his eventual start on this opera.
The role of Leticia required soprano Audrey Luna to sing an A above high C, which is the highest documented sung note in the history of the Metropolitan Opera. The Metropolitan Opera transmitted the 18 November 2017 performance of the opera to cinemas worldwide as part of the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD series; that performance has subsequently been issued on DVD and was streamed online on 5 June, 15 November, and 10 December 2020.
The opera received a new staging at the Paris Opera in 2024, in a revised version by Adès.
Contents
Synopsis
The setting is the mansion of Lucía and Edmundo de Nobile, on the Calle de la Providencia in an unnamed city, in the 1960s.
Act 1
The Nobiles are expecting guests for a dinner at their mansion in honour of the opera singer Leticia Meynar. However, the footman Lucas runs away, and the butler Julio does not stop him. The maids Meni and Camila also try to leave. The Nobiles arrive after attending a performance at the opera. When the guests go into the dining room, Meni, Camila, and several other servants make their escape. The guests repeat their entrance, which momentarily disconcerts Edmundo de Nobile.
At dinner, Nobile toasts Leticia. As Lucía announces the first course, the waiter spills it on the floor. Lucía decides to postpone her other 'entertainments', and a performing bear and several lambs are removed to the garden. The rest of the servants, except for Julio, flee the house, despite Lucía's protestations.
In the drawing room, Blanca performs at the piano. The engaged couple Eduardo and Beatriz dance. Leonora flirts with Dr. Conde, who declines to dance with her. She kisses him instead. Conde then confides to the explorer Raúl Yebenes that Leonora is gravely ill and does not have long to live. The guests praise Blanca's performance, and then encourage Leticia to sing. Señor Russell protests that she has performed enough for the evening. Several guests proclaim that they will not leave the room until Leticia has sung for them.
Several guests prepare to depart, whilst Roc falls asleep. In the cloakroom, Lucía gives her secret lover, Colonel Álvaro Gómez, a fleeting kiss. The guests become lethargic and distracted. Although it is now very late, none of them attempts to leave. Though confused, Edmundo graciously offers lodging to those who wish to stay. Russell and Colonel Gómez are horrified as some guests remove their tailcoats, but eventually they too lie down to sleep. Eduardo and Beatriz retreat to a private corner to spend their first night together.
Act 2
The guests wake the following morning. Silvia says that she slept poorly. Conde examines Russell, and diagnoses him as terminally ill. Julio is supposed to prepare breakfast, but reports that no supplies have arrived at the mansion. When Lucía tries to take some of the ladies to her bedroom to freshen up, they cannot leave the dining room. Blanca frets about her children, but even she and her husband Alberto Roc, a conductor, cannot leave. Silvia finds this situation humorous, with the knowledge that her son Yoli is safe with his private tutor, Padre Sansón. Julio approaches with coffee and the leftovers from the previous evening's dinner. Leticia entreats Julio not to enter the drawing room, but in vain. Blanca is desperate, while Raúl sees no reason to get overly excited. Francisco complains that he cannot possibly stir his coffee with a teaspoon. When sent to procure coffee spoons, Julio now finds himself trapped in the drawing room.
Instrumentation
Pit Musicians
3 flutes (2nd doubles on piccolo I and bass flute; 3rd doubles on piccolo II and alto flute)
3 oboes (3rd doubles on cor anglais)
3 clarinets in A (3rd doubles on bass clarinet)
3 bassoons (3rd doubles on contraforte or contrabassoon with low A)
4 horns in F (optionally doubling Wagner tubas)
3 trumpets in B♭
3 trombones
tuba
percussion (4 players): timpani & roto-toms, glockenspiel, xylophone, tubular bells, 6 antique cymbals, small steel drum, 4 saucepans, 4 tunes gongs, 2 bell plates, bass bell (in B♭), newspaper, small mark tree, metal wind chimes, 2 pairs of castanets, machine-mounted castanets, small & large maracas, metal maracas, double guiro, cabasa, 3 small whips, door slam, small anvil, 2 small woodblocks, small ratchet, tambourine, 2 small bongos, deep log drum, tavola, washboard, lion's roar, 2 large stones, 2 spring coils, triangle, small cowbell, 2 pairs of clashed cymbals, 2 suspended cymbals, hi-hat, 2 sizzle cymbals, 2 tam-tams, 2 side drums, tenor drum, kick bass drum, bass drum with mounted cymbal
piano
harp
guitar
ondes Martenot
strings (including 1/32 size violins)
Offstage Musicians
percussion: 4 players playing 8 church bells or bass handbells, plus (minimum) 4 players playing mixture of bass, tenor and side drums. Parts can be double or played by the same four players as the church bells (optionally)
Symphony
The Exterminating Angel Symphony, composed in 2020, is a four-movement orchestral rendering of music from the opera. It was first performed on 4 August 2021 at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. A repeat performance took place at the BBC Proms in London the next day.