Powder her Face

Intro

Powder her Face

Thomas Adès

From 28/11/2002 in Antwerp - from 04/12/2002 in Ghent

  • Luca Pfaff
  • Carlos Wagner
  • Ingrid Habermann
  • Stephen Richardson
  • Eileen Hulse
  • Andreas Jaeggi
  • Musical direction: Luca Pfaff
  • Director: Carlos Wagner
  • Duchess: Ingrid Habermann
  • Hotel Manager/ Duke/ Laundryman: Stephen Richardson
  • Other guest/ Judge/ Maid/ Confidante/ Waitress/ Mistress: Eileen Hulse
  • Electrician/ Lounge Lizard/ Waiter/ Rubbernecker/ Delivery boy: Andreas Jaeggi

‘Pure façade – power, perfume, make-up and fur – and nothing behind it’ is how Thomas Adès and librettist Philip Hensher describe the eccentric Duchess of Argyll, née Margaret Whigham, who became involved in a notorious divorce case in 1963. The opera "Powder Her Face" is far from a biography of a fashionable lady. It is a satirical sketch of a highly colourful figure whose downfall was relished by the British gutter press. Adès – the new boy wonder of contemporary British music – wrote a catchy, witty score with jazz elements and allusions to Kurt Weill.

Practical

Surtitles: Dutch.

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