Angels in America
Barbican
Angels in America is the latest in the series of contemporary operas which are being mounted at the Barbican by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The others have been semi-staged, this was three-quarter staged, with props, moved around by the performers, and an Angel crashing into the action at the close of Act I. It is the latest opera by the Transylvanian composer Peter Eötvös, whose previous opera Love and Other Demons was premiered at the 2008 Glyndebourne Festival, to no great acclaim. Angels in America, by contrast, has been given very warm welcomes in the various cities in which it has been produced, beginning with Paris in 2004. If anything, I preferred Love and Other Demons, but I can’t see merit in either of them, and, worse, Angels strikes me as positively bad.
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David Butterfield
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It is adapted from the play by Tony Kushner, recipient of every known award, almost seven hours long, and described generously by Christopher Cook in his helpful programme notes for the Barbican as ‘gloriously baggy’.
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