"Angel’s Bone was created out of the desire to marry the spiritual with the profane. It is a piece that explores the psychology of the abuser, and seeks to understand the impulse to cross over into morally reprehensible territories. Our story drops in on the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. X.E., he a failed man of business, and she a younger, beautiful woman who married him with the hope of a life of luxury. Mrs. X.E. now blames her husband for dragging her into a life of mediocrity. It is only when a pair of fallen angels crashes down into their backyard garden, does the wife see possibility: the angels are their salvation. While Mr. X.E. believes that they could be celebrated as curiosities, Mrs. X.E. has more sinister plans… they will sell pockets of private time with the angels, their neighbors paying exorbitant fees to have their way with the angels.  She controls the money and the rewards, while he plays the middleman. When a crisis of conscience befalls Mr. X.E., he kills himself in an attempt to help the angels escape, freeing the two captive creatures.  Mrs. X.E. becomes famous, suggesting that she was the true victim of her husband’s abuses."

- Royce Vavrek, librettist

"Du Yun's audacious and searing Angel's Bone. It's an appallingly good work when you consider that it takes on the subject of child trafficking and mixes in elements of magic realism and a musical cocktail of Renaissance polyphony, electronica, Modernism, punk rock and cabaret ... The director, Michael McQuilken, drew courageous and memorable performances from all."

- Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, The New York Times.

"Angel's Bone is a mature and complex work. It is a fable inside an allegory and its soundscape ranges across the history of Western music."

- Natalie Axton, Hyperallergic

"Disturbing, powerful and original, effectively using electronics and video, the opera ended with the evil wife tearfully pleading her case on daytime TV, adding the final nail of credibility to a work that gave me nightmares, yet one that I would nonetheless see again."

- Anne Midgette, The Washington Post.

"Mezzo Abigail Fischer's wonderfully pitiless demeanor and chilly coloratura set up a Lady Macbeth-like Mrs. X.E.; Kyle Pfortmiller brought out the brutish insecurity of her husband, so easily persuaded to do her dirty work. Kyle Bielfield's wide vocal range and sweetness embodied the heartbreaking innocence of the Boy Angel; as the Girl Angel, Jennifer Charles's nonclassical voice scraped and howled against an electronic score, making her pain excruciatingly audible."

- Heidi Waleson, The Wall Street Journal.