Got any plans for Wednesday, November 29? Yes. Yes, you do: You’re going to go see the encore presentation of the November 18 HD simulcast of the Metropolitan Opera’s American premiere of Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel. I know, it’s a mouthful. I’m just that excited.
Anthony Tommasini says if you’re going to see one opera this year, this is it. (He’s wrong, of course. You should see it regardless of whether you were planning to go to an opera at all.)
Alex Ross calls it “a huge, hyper-complex creation” whose “vocal writing borders on the outlandish.”
I say—after having seen it with the missus over the weekend—that it’s an apocalyptic nightmare; a spectacular display both of Adès’s compositional skills and of no fewer than 15 (!) solo singing roles. It simply has to be experienced to be believed.
I mean, if nothing else, you’ll see Cynthia Miller perform on ondes martenot. And coloratura soprano Audrey Luna will hit a note so high it’s never been sung in the 137-year history of the Metropolitan Opera. Win-win.
