The Exterminating Angel

The Exterminating Angel reminds us that what is truly sacrilegious is not blasphemy, but empty routine and self-satisfaction. The eponymous film by Luis Buñuel becomes an almost mythical origin for the opera by Thomas Adès, a brilliant composer who will also conduct the performances at the Liceu. Adès transforms that unsettling universe into a fascinating sonic architecture: a music laden with effects, unusual textures and subtle tensions that opens the doors to a ritual that slowly unravels. The celebrated production by Calixto Bieito for the Opéra national de Paris places the audience in a bourgeois and apparently civilized space: an aristocratic salon that, after a refined dinner, reveals the fragility of its rituals. Where there should be only meaning, there is repetition; where there should be freedom, an suffocating inertia accumulates. It is in this disarray that the exterminating angel hints: an invisible force that fractures order and exposes the sacrilegious character of a society that has forgotten the true meaning of what is sacred. The celebrated production by Calixto Bieito for the Opéra national de Paris places the audience in a bourgeois and apparently civilized space: an aristocratic salon that, after a refined dinner, reveals the fragility of its rituals. Where there should be only meaning, there is repetition; where there should be freedom, an suffocating inertia accumulates. It is in this disarray that the exterminating angel hints: an invisible force that fractures order and exposes the sacrilegious character of a society that has forgotten the true meaning of what is sacred. Venues: La Sala: 2292 people El Foyer: 421 people Projection room: 42 people