The subject of the opera is the "Dirty Duchess", Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, whose sexual exploits were the stuff of scandal and gossip in Britain in 1963 during her divorce proceedings. The opera is explicit in its language and detail.
It was first performed on 1 July 1995 in Cheltenham, with Jill Gómez in the leading role. Reviews were generally good, but the opera became notorious for its musical depiction of fellatio: British radio station Classic FM considered it unsuitable for transmission.
Hensher seized the opportunity to create the first onstage blow job in opera history, but he also twisted the story into something more generalised and expressionistic: Margaret becomes a half-comic, half-tragic figure, a nitwit outlaw. There were clear parallels with Alban Berg’s epic of degradation, Lulu [...] The libretto reads like a nasty farce, but it takes on emotional breadth when the music is added. With a few incredibly seductive stretches of thirties-era popular melody, Adès shows the giddy world that the Duchess lost, and when her bright harmony lurches down to a terrifying B-flat minor he exposes the male cruelty that quickened her fall. Adès's harmonic tricks have a powerful theatrical impact: there’s a repeated sense of a beautiful mirage shattering into cold, alienated fragments.[1]
The U.S. staged premiere was at the Aspen Music Festival on 25 July 1997,[2] conducted by the composer, with Máire O'Brien as the Duchess, Heather Buck, and Allen Schrott, directed by Edward Berkeley. The same cast subsequently performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) on 10 December 1998 with the Brooklyn Philharmonic conducted by Robert Spano. Boston first heard the opera, as produced by Opera Boston, on 6 June 2003. The Boston Modern Opera Project was conducted by Gil Rose with Janna Baty as the Duchess; Buck and Schrott reassumed their roles.[citation needed]
The New York City Opera performed the opera in February 2013 at the BAM in a production by Jay Scheib and starring the soprano Allison Cook as the Duchess of Argyll.[4] The Opera Company of Philadelphia performed the opera in June 2013, with Patricia Schuman in the lead role.[5]
The German premiere took place at the Hebbel-Theater on 17 April 2001 as part of a coproduction led by the Berlin Chamber Opera [de], together with the Music Theatre Group Amsterdam. The orchestra was the Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen under the musical direction of Brynmor Jones with Sally Silver, Eileen Hulse, Richard Edgar-Wilson, and Martin Nelson.[citation needed] The Danish premiere took place later that year (2001) at Den Anden Opera with the same cast and orchestra also conducted by Brynmor Jones.[citation needed] The Switzerland premiere took place on May 30, 2021 at Equilibre, Fribourg, with additional performances at Stadttheater Schaffhausen [de]; Théâtre de l'Athénée, Paris, France; and Teatro comunale, Bolzano [it], Italy, in a production by Nouvel Opéra Fribourg directed by Julien Chavaz with Sophie Marilley, Timur Bekbosunov, Alison Scherzer and Graeme Danby.[6][7][8][9][10]
Maid, also Confidante, Waitress, Mistress, Rubbernecker, Society Journalist
high soprano
Valdine Anderson
Synopsis
Act 1
Scene 1 – 1990 (The hotel). An electrician and a maid are discovered by the Duchess in her suite, ridiculing her. The scene closes with the entrance of a male figure.
Scene 2 – 1934 (A country House). The Duchess's confidante and a lounge lizard discuss her recent divorce. The Duke makes an impressive entrance.
Scene 3 – 1936. The Duke and Duchess's wedding is described in a fancy aria by a waitress.
Scene 4 – 1953. The Duchess stays at the hotel and seduces a waiter. The waiter accepts a tip and reveals the recurrence of the Duchess's deeds.
Scene 5 – 1953. The Duke visits his mistress. They flirt and she suggests that the Duchess's serial seductions are the talk of London.
Act 2
Scene 6 – 1955. Two rubberneckers comment extravagantly on the divorce case. The judge denigrates the Duchess's morals.
Scene 7 – 1970. The Duchess is interviewed by a society journalist. Her bill is delivered.
Scene 8 – 1990. The hotel manager tells the Duchess to leave the hotel, since she is unable to pay her bills. She attempts to seduce him but with no success. She departs.
Epilogue. The electrician and the maid surface from beneath the bed and destroy the hotel room.
Instrumentation
The opera is scored for an orchestra of 15 players, with much doubling, and a large range of percussion instruments.[12]
Powder Her Face was made into a motion picture by Britain's Channel 4 and shown on Christmas Day 1999. The film was released on DVD in the UK for Christmas 2005; the DVD includes a documentary film about Adès by Gerald Fox made at around the same time.
Recordings
Audio CD: Conducted by the composer with the Almeida Ensemble and performed by Jill Gómez, Valdine Anderson, Niall Morris, and Roger Bryson. Recorded 1998, released 1 October 1999. (EMI: CDS5566492)
DVD: Directed by David Alden, conducted by the composer with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and performed by Mary Plazas, Heather Buck, Daniel Norman, and Graeme Broadbent. Released in 2006 in the US (DC10002).
