# Would 'The Exterminating Angel' Make The TC Top 200 Recommended Operas Today?



## Amara (Jan 12, 2012)

If you were voting on the TC Top 200 Recommended Operas today, do you think Adès' _The Exterminating Angel_ would make the list?

Last time we made the list was late 2015, before _The Exterminating Angel_'s premiere in 2016. Would it make the list today?

I also wonder about how the Met HDs affect familiarity and voting. For instance, in the 2010 list, _Bluebeard's Castle_ ranked #62; when we redid voting in 2015, it soared up to #10, months after its Met HD premiere, presumably because more people had been exposed to it.

Likewise, would _L'Amour de loin_'s ranking move up from its current position at #39 today? How about _Les pêcheurs de perles_ at #99?

I know in general my voting would change from last time due to having seen more operas since then.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

If _The Saint of Bleecker Street _never made it or _The Passenger_, I kinda doubt it (but who knows?)


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## Amara (Jan 12, 2012)

That's part of my point, that the viewing availability of operas affects their chances of making the list and ranking higher. I've never seen the two operas you mentioned, but I would vote for/recommend _The Exterminating Angel_ based on the 90+ operas I've seen.

Do you find it recommendation-worthy in your experience?


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Amara said:


> If you were voting on the TC Top 200 Recommended Operas today, do you think Adès' _The Exterminating Angel_ would make the list?
> 
> Last time we made the list was late 2015, before _The Exterminating Angel_'s premiere in 2016. Would it make the list today?
> 
> ...


No it don't, normally there is a lively discussion on amongst Met goers / listeners , not one word this time. 
As for myself, never again.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Amara, who knows if it would make it. Perhaps your theory about Met HD is correct. I like the idea of new operas making the current list even if they subsequently go out of favour in later years.

Glad you enjoyed it. Others seem less enamoured with the music.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

I've heard excerpts and I'm just glad I don't have to sit through the whole thing


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## ma7730 (Jun 8, 2015)

I'd certainly vote for it now that I've seen it. I found sitting through the whole thing to actually be an incredibly powerful experience. The ending was beautiful, albeit not in the traditional sense.


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

I don't know how much the bump in rank for Bluebeard's Castle could be attributed to the Met Live in HD broadcast. It may have more to do with the changing voting population and some of the details of the voting method used.

Personally I really disliked the _Bluebeard's Castle_ as seen from the Live in HD (as much as I loved the _Iolanta_) even though it is high on my list of favorite operas (though perhaps not #10).

I would vote for _The Exterminating Angel_. A few voters might be enough for it to make it to the latter part of the list, but it would not be ranked high.


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## Amara (Jan 12, 2012)

Would any of you vote more favorably for _L'Amour de loin_ or _Les pêcheurs de perles_ this time? I would; I hadn't seen them last time we voted. Though I'm surprised _L'amour_ ranks so highly on our list.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Well, certainly it wouldn't make *my* list, but there are other contemporary operas that would, such as "L'Amour de loin", "Doctor Atomic", "Luci mie traditrici" or "Written on Skin".


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Amara said:


> Would any of you vote more favorably for _L'Amour de loin_ or _Les pêcheurs de perles_ this time? I would; I hadn't seen them last time we voted. Though I'm surprised _L'amour_ ranks so highly on our list.


Any day of the week I vote for this opera.


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## David OByrne (Dec 1, 2016)

Considering how awful most opera is, this is one of the better ones


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

As my dear, late grandad use to say, their is good taste, bad taste and your taste.


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

I don't think I've seen 200 Operas but I must have seen 100 I'd see again and Exterminating Angel isn't one of them.


Mr Ades seems extremely well connected and a darling of todays critics. Covent Garden spared no expense with cast and set but i left wondering why. To answer the question I am sure it would make a renewed poll as it would only take one or two votes to make the top 200.

I will try his other works if presented, but judgng from snippets on the Radio his music is a fashion. Here to day gone...


IN one of those inexplicable coincidences 2018 should see the dubut of Sondheim's Exterminating Angel. I wonder if either will take a place in the pantheon. The newer work will inevitably draw comparison with the earlier one, helping keep this debate alive a little longer.


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

Belowpar said:


> IN one of those inexplicable coincidences 2018 should see the dubut of Sondheim's Exterminating Angel. I wonder if either will take a place in the pantheon. The newer work will inevitably draw comparison with the earlier one, helping keep this debate alive a little longer.


There was a time, several years ago, when we hoped both would be on stage in NYC at the same time. Alas, that was not to be.

I am convinced that the music of Thomas Adès will be listened to for generations. What he has written to this point may never be popular, but he will have his audience.


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## Daniel Atkinson (Dec 31, 2016)

Pugg said:


> As my dear, late grandad use to say, their is good taste, bad taste and your taste.


I'm sure everyone's grandad used to say something to them at some point and I'm not too far from being that myself

Daniel


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Daniel Atkinson said:


> I'm sure everyone's grandad used to say something to them at some point and I'm not too far from being that myself
> 
> Daniel


Give them wise advice then


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## rspader (May 14, 2014)

I was thinking of seeing the encore presentation of _The Exterminating Angel_ tomorrow afternoon but y'all have talked me out of it. Thanks for saving me $22.00 and a few hours of time.


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Just got here so I missed this discussion in real time. Exterminating Angel is my lone hit among modern operas at the Met. At intermission my take was somewhat different...more along the lines of that being an hour I'll never get back! The second act did a 180! There's a gorgeous duet that was, lyrically, the high point and the music throughout the act had me. I keep saying I'm going to get it and give another listen...at least to the second act, but I'm guessing I'm afraid to have the verdict change. So many misses...Tempest, Two Boys, Marni, Klinghoffer....I like having the memory!

Loved the Mets Bluebeard!


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

I saw the PBS broadcast of "The Exterminating Angel " from the Met not too long after the first performances in New York, and I found it really interesting, and I was not at all bored by it . 
I'd like to get a DVD of this television performance if it's available . I will need repeated hearings to understand the opera better . But only time will tell whether it becomes an established part of the operatic repertoire . So many great operas have never been regularly performed since their premieres 
yet deserve to get more performances .


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

superhorn said:


> I saw the PBS broadcast of "The Exterminating Angel " from the Met not too long after the first performances in New York, and I found it really interesting, and I was not at all bored by it .
> I'd like to get a DVD of this television performance if it's available . I will need repeated hearings to understand the opera better . But only time will tell whether it becomes an established part of the operatic repertoire . So many great operas have never been regularly performed since their premieres
> yet deserve to get more performances .


It IS available on DVD and Blu-ray and I agree with those who said that it was a very enjoyable work.









N.


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