Claudia Boyle

The action takes place during a Spanish attack on the Moorish capital of Grenada, where Almuzir has deposed and killed the legitimate King and usurped his throne. Almuzir is in love with Zoraida, but she is already betrothed to general Abenamet. Machinations ensue and, though Almuzir tries to dispose of Abenamet, the general outwits the ruler by disguising himself as an unknown knight. Will Abenamet finally win the day and the hand of his beloved Zoraida?

After last season’s The Dante Project, the Paris Opera continues to explore the music of contemporary composer Thomas Adès with the French premiere of The Exterminating Angel. Inspired by Luis Buñuel’s 1962 surrealist film, which offered a scathing critique of the bourgeoisie, the work begins with a dinner among upper-class friends in a plush mansion after an opera performance. But, gradually, a mysterious force prevents the fifteen guests from leaving the reception. In this confinement for no apparent reason, drawn out over several days, the veneer of propriety cracks, revealing the worst of human nature. Thomas Adès has written a rich and tense score, amplifying the libretto’s strange atmosphere with unusual instruments such as the ondes Martenot. The Paris Opera has entrusted the staging of this huis-clos to Calixto Bieito. The director has long been fascinated by Buñuel’s universe.