
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.
Joseph Kaiser, Amanda Echalaz, Audrey Luna, Alice Coote, Sally Matthews, Iestyn Davies, Christine Rice, Rodney Gilfry

Tannhäuser
2019

Abesalom and Eteri
1967

A Cold Dinner
2020

Inland Empire
2006

Roots
2025

Need a Man
2013

James and the Giant Peach
1996

Marco Polo (An Opera Within an Opera)
2008

The Cat in the Hat
2003

Claude Debussy - Pelléas et Mélisande
2012

Poulenc's The Human Voice / Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle
2018

Berg: Wozzeck
2018