The UK Premiere of the Pulitzer-prize winning opera Angel’s Bone by composer Du Yun and librettist Royce Vavrek will take place from May 12-16 at Aviva Studios in Manchester. The new English National Opera production, in collaboration with Factory International, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Kantos Chamber Choir, will then be staged again in October at the London Coliseum.
Angel’s Bone was originally commissioned by the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, with its completion co-commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects and HERE. The 2016 World Premiere was co-produced by Beth Morrison Projects, HERE, and Trinity Wall Street in New York City.
Du Yun, now based in New York City, was born and raised in Shanghai. She is known for her “relentless originality and unflinching social conscience” (The New Yorker) and works at the intersection of opera, orchestral music, theatre, cabaret, musical theatre, oral tradition, public performances, electronics, visual arts, and noise. Angel’s Bone tackles the difficult subject of human trafficking in the form of a modern parable; two angels fall to earth, only to have their wings clipped and their heavenly gifts exploited by the desperate couple who discovers them. The ENO production is directed by Kip Williams, making his ENO and UK debut, and internationally-renowned conductor Baldur Brönniman leads the orchestra.
