Powder Her Face

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Opera dates
Original title: Powder Her Face
Scene from a performance by the Teatro Comunale Bologna

Scene from a performance by the Teatro Comunale Bologna

Shape: Chamber opera
Original language: English
Music: Thomas Adès
Libretto : Philip Hensher
Premiere: July 1, 1995
Place of premiere: Cheltenham
Playing time: approx. 115 minutes
Place and time of the action: 1934-1990
people
  • Duchess (lyric soprano )
  • Hotel manager ( bass )
  • Electrician ( tenor )
  • Chambermaid (coloratura soprano)

Powder Her Face (op.14) is a chamber opera in two acts and eight scenes for four singers and fifteen players by Thomas Adès ( music ) with a libretto by Philip Hensher . It is based on the life of Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll (1912-93) and was first performed on July 1, 1995 at the Everyman Theater Cheltenham. She became known for her first fellatio scene on the opera stage .

action

The opera tells moments from the life of the Duchess of Argyll, whose lifestyle was a recurring topic of the British tabloid press.

first act

Scene 1. 1990: In the Duchess's absence, the maid and an electrician make fun of her and her clothes in her hotel room. The Duchess enters the room and surprises them both. Given the humiliations, she remembers her glamorous past.

Scene 2. 1934: The young noblewoman and former “ Debutante of the Year” waits for the Duke in a country house with her confidante and a salon lion. They talk about their recent divorce from Baron Freeling. She has been a public talk since then, and songs have even been written about her. They blaspheme the Duke's reputation as a womanizer. He finally appears.

Scene 3. 1936: The former Mrs. Freeling and the Duke got married. A waitress describes the wedding and the immoral behavior of the rich.

Scene 4. 1953: The Duchess seduces the room waiter in a hotel room in London and gives him a generous tip. The waiter shows that he was not surprised by her behavior. She already has a relevant reputation among employees.

Scene 5. 1953: After a party, the Duke has fun with a lover at home. She tells him about the duchess's well-known love adventures. The Duke is stunned.

Second act

Scene 6. 1955: After the scandal, there has been a lawsuit and the verdict is awaited. Meanwhile, the sensational press reports greedily about the Duchess. The judge condemns their way of life. The Duchess calmly accepts the verdict.

Scene 7. 1970: The Duchess gives a final interview. After first talking about fashion, health and similar topics, their way of life is finally addressed. The Duchess is angry about this and expresses her contempt. She receives a huge bill from the hotel where she lived for a long time.

Scene 8. 1990: The hotel manager asks the Duchess to leave the hotel because she has not paid the bills. She tries in vain to seduce him and eventually leaves.

Epilogue: The electrician and the maid vandalize the abandoned hotel room.

layout

The composition stands out due to its irreverent and rhythmically complex instrumental textures and the imaginative and highly virtuoso voice guidance. Still, the music is catchy. Quotations of popular musical styles from the period between 1920 and 1960 are often found. The creativity and compositional security with which the young composer wrote this opera called for comparisons with Benjamin Britten and Henry Purcell . With the depicted events from the life of the Duchess it is never quite clear whether they are real events or memories of the main character. This blurring is reinforced by the fact that the three actors from the hotel staff also take on the other roles in the various scenes.

Instrumentation

The opera uses a chamber ensemble of fifteen instrumentalists:

history

The opera is a commission from the Almeida Opera. It was composed in 1995 and first performed on July 1st at the Cheltenham Festival at the Everyman Theater in Cheltenham. The production was by David Farr . The composer was the musical director. Jill Gomez, Niall Morris, Valdine Anderson and Roger Bryson sang. Many other performances followed, including in London, Hamburg, Magdeburg, New York, Helsinki, Vienna, Tel Aviv, Chicago, Rome, Antwerp, Ghent, Naples, Boston, Innsbruck, Bremen, Mannheim, Brisbane, Bologna, Venice, Philadelphia, Warsaw and Brussels.

A CD recorded in December 1995 with the contributors to the world premiere has been available since 1998.

A film adaptation of the opera was shown on Channel 4 at Christmas 1999 and later released on DVD. Mary Plazas, Heather Buck , Dan Norman and Graeme Broadbent sang in this recording, also directed by Thomas Adès .

In September and October 2015 Powder Her Face was shown at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels. The production came from Mariusz Trelinski. Alejo Pérez was the musical director . It sang Allison Cook (Duchess), Peter Coleman-Wright (Hotel Manager), Leonardo Capalbo (electrician) and Kerstin Avemo (maid). A video recording of this performance was available on the Internet as part of the Opera Platform .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Barry Millington: Smut and loathing in Powder Her Face. London Evening Standard of April 27, 2010 ( Memento of June 11, 2015 on the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Rovi Staff: Description of the work at AllMusic , accessed on October 27, 2015.
  3. ↑ List of works by Thomas Adès at fabermusic.com (PDF) , accessed on October 27, 2015.
  4. ↑ a b work information on thomasades.com , accessed on October 27, 2015.
  5. ^ Thomas Adès: Powder Her Face - Thomas Adès. CD information at Allmusic . Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  6. ↑ Powder Her Face in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  7. ↑ Jane Robins: Channel 4 screens sex opera on Christmas Day. The Independent on November 21, 2011, accessed October 27, 2015.
  8. ^ Presentation of the performance from La Monnaie on The Opera Platform ( Memento from September 11, 2017 in the Internet Archive ).