Venn, EJ orcid.org/0000-0002-5146-9568 (2017) Thomas Ades's 'The Exterminating Angel'. Tempo, 71 (280). pp. 21-46. ISSN 0040-2982
Abstract
Thomas Adès's third opera, The Exterminating Angel, is based closely upon Luis Buñuel's 1962 film El ángel exterminador, in which the hosts and guests at a high-society dinner party find themselves inexplicably unable to leave the dining room. Initial critical response to the opera too often focused on superficial similarities and discrepancies between the two works at the expense of attending to the specifically musical ways in which Adès presented the drama. This article explores the role that repetition plays in the opera, and in particular how repetitions serve both as a means of critiquing bourgeois sensibilities and as a representation of (loss of) will. I conclude by drawing on the work of Deleuze in order to situate the climax of the opera against the notion of the eternal return, highlighting how the music articulates the dramatic failure of the characters to escape.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: | |
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This article has been published in a revised form in Tempo [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0040298217000067]. This author produced version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. © Cambridge University Press 2017. |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Music (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 24 Jan 2017 10:29 |
Last Modified: | 06 Nov 2017 10:25 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1017/S0040298217000067 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
Identification Number: | 10.1017/S0040298217000067 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:110996 |