The Exterminating Angel

"The Exterminating Angel" at The Metropolitan Opera

 

I thought no one was going to show up last night to Thomas Ades' "The Exterminating Angel". At 7:55 last night the Metropolitan Opera House was was almost empty except for me and the enormous orchestra which was waiting to be conducted by Ades himself (the lyricist Tom Cairns directed). Several sheep and a bear roamed the spooky stage and I was beginning to think the audience had been unable to leave their own dinner parties. But they all arrived at once at 8:00 and the disconcerting tale of annihilation and chaos subsiding into totalitarianism began. The Brunel film has already established that there is no answer to the question as to why the characters cannot leave the dignified room wherein they become dispossessed zombies, but for an entirely atonal, deliberately baffling, hours-long and very demanding performance, it was not only instantly gratifying but also crowd - pleasing. After the sheep had been slaughtered in the drawing room, along with several of the guests, and the bear was drawing nigh, the audience had been spell-bound for almost three hours. It was enough to make anyone think the general public deserved better than the current chaotic slide into totalitarianism. The man next to me had snuck in without a ticket and said his cataracts necessitated the use of 24 inch binoculars which baffled the ushers.

Read Anthony Tommasini's review in the New York Times