2017 Met Opera Premiere of Adès’s The Exterminating Angel Is Oct. 26

Summary: The 2017 Met Opera premiere of Adès’s The Exterminating Angel is Thursday, Oct. 26, during the 2017-2018 Met Opera season’s fifth week.

Thomas Adès's The Exterminating Angel numbers as the composer's second opera to receive a Metropolitan Opera premiere; Adès's The Tempest's Metropolitan Opera premiere took place Oct. 23, 2012: Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera via Twitter Oct. 6, 2016

The 2017 Met Opera premiere of Adès’s The Exterminating Angel is Thursday, Oct. 26. The 2017-2018 Met Opera season’s fifth week also includes two performances each of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Puccini’s La Bohème and Turandot.

The Metropolitan Opera’s American premiere of The Exterminating Angel by British composer, conductor and pianist Thomas Adès takes place Thursday, Oct. 26, at 8 p.m. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time). Adès will hold the conductor’s baton throughout his opera’s American premiere.

Another performance begins the following week, on Monday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 p.m. Later in that week of transition from October to November another performance takes place Friday, Nov. 3, at 8 p.m.

The 2017 Met Opera premiere of Adès’s The Exterminating Angel runs for a total of eight performances. The remaining five performances all happen in November.

In addition to November’s first Friday performance, the month’s additional presentations of The Exterminating Angel take place Tuesday, Nov. 7, at 7:30 p.m. EST (Eastern Standard Time); Friday, Nov. 10, at 8 p.m.; Tuesday, Nov. 14, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 18, at 1 p.m.; Tuesday, Nov. 21, at 7:30 p.m.

Adès’s third opera derives inspiration from El ángel exterminador. Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel (Feb. 22, 1900-July 29, 1983) wrote and directed the 1962 surrealistic film about unusual events at a dinner party.

Tom Cairns directs Met Opera’s American premiere. The British director is credited for writing the opera’s libretto.

Cairns’ production team comprises Hildegard Bechtler, set and costume designer; Jon Clark, lighting designer; Tal Yarden, projection designer; Amir Hosseinpour, choreographer.

October’s fourth week marks the 2017-2018 Met Opera season’s fifth week. Met Opera’s six-day week offers seven performances. Three operas, with two performances each, frame the week’s launch of The Exterminating Angel’s American premiere.

The 2017-2018 Met Opera season’s fifth week starts with La Bohème by Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini (Dec. 22, 1858-Nov. 29, 1924). Puccini’s poignant opera about an unassuming flower embroiderer named Mimì is performed Monday, Oct. 23, at 7:30 p.m. The week’s second performance is Friday, Oct. 27, at 8 p.m.

La Bohème’s 2017-2018 Met Opera season premiere took place Monday, Oct. 2. The Metropolitan Opera’s most performed opera is fourth in the 2017-2018 Met Opera season lineup of season premieres.

Les Contes d’Hoffmann by German-born French composer Jacques Offenbach (June 20, 1819-Oct. 5, 1880) is the week’s second opera. Offenbach’s opera fantastique (“fantasy opera”) has performances Tuesday, Oct. 24, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 28, at 12 p.m.

Les Contes d’Hoffmann’s 2017-2018 Met Opera season premiere happened Tuesday, Sept. 26. Offenbach’s opera about catastrophic love affairs appears second in the 2017-2018 Met Opera season lineup of season premieres.

Another Puccini opera, Turandot, is the week’s third opera. Puccini’s last, unfinished opera about love and riddles is performed Wednesday, Oct. 25, at 7:30 p.m. The week’s second performance of Turandot closes October’s fourth week, with a presentation Saturday, Oct. 28, at 8 p.m.

Turandot’s 2017-2018 Met Opera season premiere took place Thursday, Oct. 12. The atmospheric production appears fifth in the 2017-2018 Met Opera season lineup of season premieres. Both Turandot and La Bohème, the season’s fourth premiere, revive stagings from the 1980s directed and designed by Italian film, opera and television director Franco Zeffirelli (born Feb. 12, 1923).

The takeaways for the 2017 Met Opera premiere of Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel are that the opening performance on Thursday, Oct. 26, marks the opera’s American premiere and that October’s fourth week also includes Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann and two Puccini operas, La Bohème and Turandot.

Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel's surreal film, El ángel exterminador, is the inspiration for Thomas Adès's surreal opera, The Exterminating Angel: Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera via Facebook Oct. 12, 2017

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Thomas Adès's The Exterminating Angel numbers as the composer's second opera to receive a Metropolitan Opera premiere; Adès's The Tempest's Metropolitan Opera premiere took place Oct. 23, 2012: Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera via Twitter tweet of Oct. 6, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/MetOpera/status/916316674151862272

Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel's surreal film, El ángel exterminador, is the inspiration for Thomas Adès's surreal opera, The Exterminating Angel: Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera via Facebook Oct. 12, 2017, @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/photos/a.134969600532.229232.20807115532/10159571816950533/

For further information:

Marriner, Derdriu. “2017-2018 Met Opera Seasons Opens Sept. 25 With Bellini’s Norma.” Earth and Space News. Monday, Sept. 18, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/09/2017-2018-met-opera-season-opens-sept.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “2017-2018 Met Opera Season Premiere of La Bohème Is Monday, Oct. 2.” Earth and Space News. Monday, Sept. 25, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/09/2017-2018-met-opera-season-premiere-of.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “2017-2018 Met Opera Season Premiere of Turandot Is Thursday, Oct. 12.” Earth and Space News. Monday, Oct. 2, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/10/2017-2018-met-opera-season-premiere-of.html

The Metropolitan Opera. “On Stage 2017-18.” The Metropolitan Opera > Season.
Available @ http://www.metopera.org/Season/2017-18-Season/

Metropolitan Opera. “Thomas Adès and Tom Cairns on The Exterminating Angel.” YouTube. June 5, 2017.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ7-PanwJCI&t=4s

Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera. "Composer and conductor Thomas Adès in a sitzprobe of The Exterminating Angel. Premieres 10/26." Twitter. Oct. 6, 2016.
Available @ https://twitter.com/MetOpera/status/916316674151862272

Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera. "Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel makes its U.S.Premiere just two weeks from today on Oct 26! Check out photos of the large ensemble cast (and their woolly new friends) in yesterday's early stage rehearsal. Learn more at bit.ly/2qXWFIb. Photos by Jonathan Tichler/Metropolitan Opera." Facebook. Oct. 12, 2017.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/photos/a.134969600532.229232.20807115532/10159571816950533/

Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera. "United States Premiere: Ades’s The Exterminating Angel. The Met presents the American premiere of Thomas Adès's The Exterminating Angel, inspired by the classic Luis Buñuel film of the same name. . . .Photo by Monika Rittershaus/Salzburg Festival
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/photos/a.10158357868585533.1073741928.20807115532/10158357948040533/

Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera. “Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel, inspired by Luis Buñuel’s surrealist film, makes its US premiere Oct 26.” Twitter. June 25, 2017.
Available @ https://twitter.com/MetOpera/status/879111973039767552