Organization

Conductor

Timothy Redmond

Stage director

Julien Chavaz

Set designer

Anneliese Neudecker

Costume designer

Séverine Besson

Lighting designer

Eloi Gianini

Singer

Soprano

Sophie Marilley

Duchess

Tenor

Timur

Delivery Boy

Bass

Graeme Danby

Duke

Alison Scherzer

Confidante

Fondazione Haydn di Bolzano e Trento

Orchestra

Orchestra Sinfonica Haydn di Bolzano e Trento

Powder Her Face

Bolzano

Italy

Teatro Comunale

Sala Grande

Public

Approved

Direction musicale Jérôme KuhnMise en scène Julien ChavazScénographie Anneliese NeudeckerCostumes Severine BessonLumières Eloi GianiniMaquillages, perruques ...

Powder Her Face - Trailer - Thomas Adès - NOF - Nouvel Opéra Fribourg

While in Spain, on the opera stage, Don Giovanni can be braggart with his 1003 mistresses, in 1960s Britain the 88 lovers of the Duchess of Argyll Margaret Campbell were his undoing. In a flashback, the chamber opera Powder Her Face(in Italian: Incipriale il testa) by Thomas Adès portrays the debauchery of Margaret Campbell, whose lifestyle sparked one of Britain's biggest sex scandals. In 1963, her marriage to the Duke of Argyll is dissolved in a spectacular trial, in which Polaroids showing the Duchess in sexually explicit attitudes are used as evidence. The tabloid press feeds on her from her escapades and publicly stigmatizes her by calling her "dirty duchess". With the verdict - media and judicial - Margaret's social and financial ruin begins. Powder Her Faceit is a denunciation of the double standard of society, as well as of media voyeurism. The music is particularly convincing, with its instrumental textures with complex rhythms, a very imaginative virtuosic voice and references to swing and tango, which place the story temporally.

English

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble