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. The Paris Opera Orchestra and ChorusWith the participation of medici.tv, and the support of the Fondation Orange, sponsor of the Paris Opera's audiovisual broadcasts. © Opéra national de Paris – 2024 Director: François-René Martin

The hosts Edmundo: Marquis de Nobile Lucia de Nobile: his wifeTheir guests Leticia Maynar: an opera singer Leonora Palma Silvia de Ávila: a young widowed mother, duchess of Ávila Francisco de Ávila: her brother Blanca Delgado: a pianist Alberto Roc: her husband, a conductor Beatriz Eduardo: her fiancé Comte Raúl Yebenes: an explorer Colonel Álvaro Gómez Señor Russell Docteur Carlos CondeThe staff Julio: the butler Lucas: the footman Enrique: the waiter Pablo: the cook Meni: a maid Camila: a maidOutside the house Père Sansón Yoli: Silvia’s son

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The Exterminating Angel

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 