New opera production adds something new to Luis Buñuel's 'The Exterminating Angel': cannibalism

Calixto Bieito added an element to “The Exterminating Angel” that Luis Buñuel and Thomas Adès left out: cannibalism.

Adès’ opera, based on Buñuel’s 1962 film “El ángel exterminador,” details psychologically blocked dinner guests who can’t depart a mansion and the disintegration of decorum after days of dystopian detachment. Bieito’s new production opened at the Paris Opéra on Feb. 29 and runs through March 23.

Buñuel featured sheep who wander the house, then are cooked and eaten. Bieito, a 62-year-old Spanish director known for provocative interpretations, sets despairing patricians bingeing on each other's limbs.

“He just said ‘I hate sheep. We’re not having sheep. They are the sheep,’” Adès said. “I thought, oh, yes, OK. And then it very kind of quickly dawned on me: Oh, God, this means they’re going to be eating each other. I see where this is going. But it’s not gross or anything.”