Rodney Earl Clarke, Allison Cook, Onstage Camera Operator, ENO’s Angel’s Bone at Aviva Studios, May 2026 © Tristram Kenton
Du Yun Angel’s Bone
ENO / Baldur Brönnimann – Aviva Studios, Manchester, 12 May 2026
By Robert Beale
When English National Opera first revealed casting for their production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Angel’s Bone, which has now been given its UK premiere at Aviva Studios, Manchester, it was announced as “sitting at the heart of ENO’s dual-centre model” (of developing work in both Manchester and London).
But, as far as the Manchester audience is concerned, it seems sitting is not at the heart of it. In most cases, they have to stand for its entire 80 minutes. Kip Williams’ production (with design by Marg Horwell) is highly imaginative and up to trend in its technology, live cameras feeding images to four large screens that overhanging the “Warehouse” auditorium, themselves mixed to provide detailed visual information above the performance area. That’s where the focus has to be for most attenders, as there’s not much in direct line of sight to the slowly revolving circular stage around which they take their pitch, six-or-so deep. (I was lucky enough to get a position in the small seated area provided for those who couldn’t cope with the long stand, for which I was grateful).
When it gets to the Coliseum in London in October, the audience will be seated. How much of the sets that are constructed and deconstructed as the performance proceeds will be available, and how much the screens and camera feeds will be used then, remains to be seen. This raises the question whether by then there will have been two different versions of this production, one for each venue – and why ENO did not use the other main space in the Aviva Studios building (known as “the Hall”), which has a large conventional stage and generous raked seating, in the first place. There are only 10 musicians required by Du Yun’s score, so it must have been possible to get them in despite the lack of a pit there. Perhaps it’s that ENO’s real vision for Manchester work is in forward-thinking, boundary-breaking territory, and they don’t want to be conventional.
The opera depends not only on its five principal singers but on the virtuosity of its chorus, who take the parts not only of a small squadron of angels at the beginning but of a range of other characters as it continues. They are Kantos Chamber Choir, the Manchester-based ensemble, in some ways are the stars of the show (in particular Camilla Seale, a rich mezzo, whose part as a disappointed would-be recipient of blessings stood out).
The other stand-out, though, is the singing actress Allison Cook, who has an impressive record in contemporary opera here and in Europe and who appeared in last summer’s Buxton International Festival both as Gertrude in Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet and as Elle in Poulenc’s harrowing solo opera, La Voix Humaine. Alongside her is Rodney Earl Clarke as her husband, and the two young angels who visit humankind, landing in the suburban couple’s compost heap, Mariam Wallentin and Matthew McKinney, while male soprano Keith Pun is both archangel and commentator. All are powerful interpretations of difficult writing and acted with convincing passion.
In Royce Vavrek’s text, the hapless young angels’ wings are clipped, literally, by the man and his wife, who decide to exploit their good fortune by selling the feathers they’ve obtained while keeping their mutilated guests confined to a bathtub. Of course it goes horribly wrong, and the story ends with the scheming wife trying to make money out of the fact that she’s pregnant with a “little cherub”. The piece is allegedly a parable of people trafficking and modern slavery, though to me it seems more redolent of American television evangelists and their promotion of promised “blessing” to those who give money to get it. The performance, conducted by Baldur Brönnimann with musicians from the BBC Philharmonic, is never less than totally committed and makes its impact: the only question is from what point you get to view it.
Robert Beale
Further performances on 14 and 15 May at 7.45pm and 16 May at 2pm at Aviva Studios, and 16, 22, 23, 29 October 2026 at 7.30pm, on 17 October at 6pm and on 31 October at 2pm, with ENO Orchestra, at the London Coliseum; recorded for broadcast by Radio 3 on 6 June (then for 30 days on BBC Sounds).