Dark comic tale of Duchess a first for Irish National Opera
IRISH National Opera’s first production ‘Powder Her Face’ by the British composer Thomas Adés will be presented in the National Opera House in Wexford on Saturday, February 24 at 8pm as part of a five-venue tour.
The darkly comic opera written by the 46year old Adés when he was just 24, is based on the fall from grace of notorious socialite, Margaret, Duchess of Argyll who lived the high life from the 1930’s onwards and in the 1960’s became embroiled in one of the first sex scandals of modern tabloid journalism. As the Judge in the opera puts it, ‘She is a Don Juan among women’.
Hailed as a modern classic by The Times and The Observer, ‘Powder Her Face’ is a co-production with NI Opera and was first staged last year at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. The title role is taken by Mary Plazas as the Duchess with Irish soprano Daire Halpin and Australian-British tenor Adrian Dwyer as representatives of the lower orders and British bass-baritone Stephen Richardson as the divorce court judge. The INO artistic director is Fergus Sheil.
The four singers bring 16 roles to life while the 15-member Irish National Opera Orchestra, under conductor Timothy Redmond, perform the music featuring a notoriously explicit aria. Thomas Adés’ second opera The Tempest has been seen in London, New York, Vienna and Quebec, and his third opera, The Exterminating Angel, was co-commissioned by the Salzburg Festival, The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera New York and the Royal Danish Opera, Tickets can be booked at irishnationalopera.ie.