English National Opera (ENO) has made a bold leap by selecting one of the most uncompromising pieces of 21st-century music theatre for its first new opera staged in its northern base. Du Yun's Angel's Bone, which won the Chinese American composer the 2017 Pulitzer Prize, tackles human trafficking head-on in an allegorical tale of two angels that fall – literally – into the clutches of a dysfunctional couple who hesitate for all of five minutes before deciding to mutilate and exploit them.
A Dizzying Staging
For this inaugural production, a collaboration with Factory International and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, ENO recruited Kip Williams, whose The Picture of Dorian Gray dazzled the West End and Broadway. The innovative Australian director employs his breathless technical wizardry to fashion a dizzying in-the-round staging at Aviva Studios in Manchester. The action takes place on a slow revolve, with the angels initially alone and huddled centre stage before being imprisoned by the shifting walls of Mr and Mrs X E's suburban home. Marg Horwell's costumes capture the drabness of suburbia, growing increasingly garish as the couple embrace the celebrity afforded by their exotic captives. The frenetic action, ingeniously lit by Jack Knowles, is filmed and live-projected onto three enormous screens.
Music and Text
Du Yun's score is performed by a tireless ensemble of 10, expertly conducted by Baldur Brönnimann. It is a genre-bending mix of contemporary classical and nightclub electronica – think Monteverdi meets Stockhausen and takes him round for tea with Björk. Her instrumental palette operates at extremes, with key roles assigned to tuba and lute, yet there is textural beauty here when the music is not joyously kicking ass. Royce Vavrek's unsettling text gets its message across with gritty specificity, though the storyline might benefit from more of a preamble.
Performances
Allison Cook is relentless as Mrs X E, her supple mezzo embracing the melismatic vocal lines even as she metamorphoses into a Trumpian reality star. Rodney Earl Clarke offers vital support as her browbeaten husband, with Matthew McKinney and Mariam Wallentin heartbreaking as the angels. Kantos Chamber Choir, who open with Gregorian chant and close with American hymnody, do sterling work, flipflopping between a company of angels and the couple's jaded associates.
Frustrating Sightlines
Frustratingly, while the storytelling is admirably clear, the endlessly rotating walls are problematic, forming an impenetrable barrier that even obscures the screens at times. With the audience standing five deep, those at the back can often only glimpse what happens on stage. The result is disorienting and emotionally distancing. Mrs X E's command that her husband 'prune' their feathered visitors triggers an unremitting spiral into physical and sexual abuse.
Future Performances
The production transfers to London later in the year, rejigged for the Coliseum's proscenium stage. With sightline issues resolved, it should be one to catch. Performances run until 16 May at Aviva Studios, Manchester, and at the Coliseum, London from 16 to 31 October 2026.
