Crossing the Threshold

GIUSEPPE PENNISI, reporting from Salzburg,
finds the first performance of Thomas Adès'
new opera 'The Exterminating Angel'
even more engrossing than Luis Bunuel

After the customary Ouverture spirituelle, a series a concerts devoted toreligious or philosophical subjects, the Salzburg Summer Festival was inaugurated on 28 July 2016 with the much awaited world premiere of The Exterminating Angel, British composer Thomas Adès' third opera, on alibretto by Tom Cairns. The production is a joint effort by the Salzburg Festival, the Metropolitan Opera House, ROH Covent Garden and theRoyal Opera of Copenhagen. Thomas Adès and Tom Cairns had worked on this opera since 2009. The former was in the pit conducting the ViennaRadio Symphony Orchestra. The latter was the stage director; his team included Hildegard Bechtler (sets and costumes), Jon Clark (lighting), Tal Yarden (videos) and Amir Hosseinpour (choreography).

The Haus für Mozart Theatre was sold out, including the 'standing room' seats. I was in the audience. The expectations were met as indicated by twenty minutes of applause and ovations. It is highly possible that, over the next few years, The Exterminating Angel will be staged in many moretheatres than those of the four original co-producers.

The plot closely follows the 1962 Luis Buňuel movie of the same title, even though the number of characters has been reduced from twenty six to fifteen for operatic reasons. In short, after an evening at the opera, six upper class couples meet for a dinner party at a villa owned by one of the couples. When it is time for everybody to go home, although the doors are open and there are no apparent obstacles, no one is capable of crossing the threshold. As time goes by, even though the police, their families and the local priest attempt to help them to leave the villa, the group is increasingly thrown back to each individual's instinct for self preservation. This includes even thinking of murder. Eventually, they will be able to exit the villa. But they will be trapped again. A parable of the human condition? According to Buňuel, this is a parable of the upper class condition.

David Adam Moore as the Colonel, Sally Matthews as Silvia, Iestyn Davies as Francisco, Charles Workman as Nobile, John Tomlinson as the Doctor, Frédéric Antoun as Raúl, Amanda Echalaz as Lucía, Audrey Luna as Leticia, Thomas Allen as Roc and Christine Rice as Blanca in Thomas Adès and Tom Cairns' 'The Exterminating Angel' at the Salzburg Summer Festival. Photo © 2016 Monika Rittershaus. Click on the image for higher resolution

Adès and Cairns render quite well the mix of realism, surrealism andreligion, typical of several Buňuel films including The Exterminating Angel. The staging is perfect and makes the parable even more engrossing than the 1962 film.

Anne Sofie von Otter as Leonora, Amanda Echalaz as Lucía, John Tomlinson as the Doctor and Christine Rice as Blanca in Thomas Adès and Tom Cairns' 'The Exterminating Angel' at the Salzburg Summer Festival. Photo © 2016 Monika Rittershaus. Click on the image for higher resolution

This is also due to the music, which has a tonal structure and is highly polyphonic. (On stage there is always a large number of characters.) There are arias, duets and concertato linked by declamation. The scorerequires a large orchestra and also unusual instruments — eg in theintroduction, only bells are playing. For the first time, Adès employs electronic music: ondes martenots, with their delicate and deep sound, just like an exterminating angel: seducer and destroyer at the same time. The first part is slow and obsessive. In the two intermezzi and in the second part, the rhythm becomes rapid until the ciaccona in the finale.

Audrey Luna as Leticia, Iestyn Davies as Francisco, Charles Workman as Nobile, Amanda Echalaz as Lucía and David Adam Moore as the Colonel in Thomas Adès and Tom Cairns' 'The Exterminating Angel' at the Salzburg Summer Festival. Photo © 2016 Monika Rittershaus. Click on the image for higher resolution

The Exterminating Angel requires fifteen great acting singers. Some of the interpreters — Anne Sofie von Otter, Charles Workman, John Tomlinsonand Thomas Allen — have been well known opera singers for thirty years. Among the others — all very good — Audrey Luna (in the role of Leticia) is especially impressive; her aria in the second part, sweet and transparent, is the prelude to the group's (temporary) freedom.