Angel’s Bone

Tickets From £24.25

Two angels fall to earth. Heaven help them.

Angels appear all too rarely. Don’t miss them.

Care becomes contempt and love becomes loathing in this dark, unsettling parable from contemporary composer Du Yun and librettist Royce Vavrek.

The Chinese-American composer, performance artist and activist won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Angel’s Bone, which is her second opera. In 2019, she was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Breaking with operatic tradition, Angel’s Bone fuses multiple musical genres, spoken word and immersive staging in an uncompromising tale of modern slavery and human trafficking. An ENO production in collaboration with Factory International and BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, this UK premiere of the Pulitzer-prize winning opera will be staged at Aviva Studios, Manchester in May and at the London Coliseum in October. The chorus for both runs will be performed by Manchester-based ensemble, Kantos Chamber Choir; the Orchestra of ENO will perform in the London run

Mr and Mrs X.E, are a desperate couple facing financial crisis and a crumbling marriage and they long for a better life. When they discover the two bruised and battered angels in their garden, they bring them inside to nurse them back to life.

Care quickly turns to control. The couple seize the opportunity to exploit the spiritual beings in pursuit of fame and fortune.

Brutally clipping the angels’ wings to exploit this heavenly gift, the celestial beings are subjected to degrading, inhumane practices.