Thomas Adès

June 18, 2015 7:30pm
June 19, 2015 7:30pm
June 20, 2015 7:30pm
Boston Conservatory Theater

POWDER HER FACE

By Thomas Adès

Text by Philip Hensher

Sung in English

Run time: two hours and twenty minutes with one twenty-minute intermission

This opera depicts violence and sexual content specifically designed to be viewed by adults and therefore may be unsuitable for children under 17.

A collaboration between Thomas Adès and librettist Philip Hensher, Powder Her Face uses the salacious, gaudy, larger-than-life tabloid saga of Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, to explore and satirize a web of power, politics, and social mores. In the 1930s, the Duchess was one of the most photographed women in the world and a style icon for millions; by the 1960s she had gained notoriety and the moniker “the Dirty Duchess” through a series of high-profile marriages, divorces, infidelities, sexual escapades, and extravagant living habits. Best known for the explicit Polaroid photographs accompanying her divorce case from the Duke of Argyll, the Duchess captivated the public with her scandalous, flamboyant public persona. But what should we really think of the Duchess and her life and times?

Patricia Schuman
THE DUCHESS

Ben Wager
HOTEL MANAGER / DUKE / LAUNDRYMAN / OTHER GUEST

Daniel Norman
ELECTRICIAN / LOUNGE LIZARD / WAITER / PRIEST / RUBBERNECKER / DELIVERY BOY

Amanda Hall
MAID / CONFIDANTE / WAITRESS / MISTRESS / RUBBERNECKER / SOCIETY JOURNALIST

Nic Muni
STAGE DIRECTOR, SCENIC AND LIGHTING DESIGNER

Gil Rose
CONDUCTOR

Photos and video by Kathy Wittman / Ball Square Films.

• Praise for Powder Her Face
  by Odyssey Opera
  June 20, 2015
• 
  Program Notes: Powder Her Face
  by Odyssey Opera
  June 15, 2015
  A swooning accordion gives a glimpse of tango, and half…
• 
  Powder Her Face: Non-required Reading
  by Odyssey Opera
  June 11, 2015
  “But nothing, in fact or publishable fiction, would have prepared…