English National Opera: Angel’s Bone at Aviva Studios

Two angels fall to earth and land in the garden of a couple whose marriage is in free fall. Heaven help them.

Du Yun and Royce Vavrek’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Angel’s Bone brings a dark contemporary parable about exploitation, coercion and the abuse of power – a story that feels uncomfortably timely. It centres on Mr and Mrs X.E. – a desperate couple facing financial crisis and a crumbling relationship. But the bruised and battered angels that land in their garden are in need of help themselves. Bringing the celestial beings into their home, the couple’s apparent act of compassion soon turns into something much darker as they exploit the angels in pursuit of fame and fortune. What begins as an uncanny domestic fable hardens into a stark allegory of modern slavery and human trafficking.

Winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music, Angel’s Bone is the second opera by Chinese-American composer, performance artist and activist Du Yun, with a libretto by Royce Vavrek. Vavrek’s text explores the forces that drive people into the murky underworld of exploitation, underpinned by a score that breaks decisively with operatic tradition. Medieval polyphony collides with electronica, punk, chamber music and cabaret, creating a sound world as fractured and unsettling as the opera’s story. In a cultural moment still grappling with the exposure of powerful systems of abuse, its themes of control and complicity feels very close to home.

This UK premiere sees visionary theatre maker Kip Williams make his ENO and UK opera debut, reuniting with designer Marg Horwell for a striking new staging. Opening first at Aviva Studios before transferring to the London Coliseum later in the year, the production is presented by English National Opera in collaboration with Factory International and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Conducting is Baldur Brönniman – a champion of contemporary repertoire who trained at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music – with the chorus performed by Manchester-based Kantos Chamber Choir.

The cast features Scottish mezzo-soprano Allison Cook as Mrs X.E., returning to ENO after her acclaimed role as Judith in Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, alongside British baritone Rodney Earl Clarke as the opportunistic Mr X.E. The wounded angels are played by Swedish vocalist Mariam Wallentin – best known as one half of Wildbirds & Peacedrums – as the Girl Angel, and rising Scottish tenor Matthew McKinney as the Boy Angel, with Hong Kong countertenor Keith Pun as Male Soprano.

Using projection and multiple viewing angles, Williams’ staging immerses audiences in the action, drawing them into the couple’s disturbing descent and forcing a confrontation with the systems of exploitation the opera lays bare.