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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com's Best of 1998
In search of a topic for his first opera, Thomas Adès originally turned to Lolita before being drawn to the ironic morality tale of sex, privilege, and the media that furnished the basis for Powder Her Face. Nevertheless, he exudes a Nabokovian delight in the rich possibilities of his allusive musical language. Most winningly, Adès's detailed portrayals of character and mood add depth to the tabloid fall-from-grace story that was the opera's germ. --Thomas May
Amazon.com
Simply put, Thomas Adès's chamber opera Powder Her Face will likely be one of the strongest, most compelling pieces of contemporary music you've heard in a long while. The libretto, at once tragic and savagely funny, is by the acclaimed young English novelist Philip Hensher and addresses a resonantly scandalous topic: the glamor-drenched life and downfall of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, whose divorce trial in the '50s set benchmark lows for publicizing someone's sex life. Adès's score is a bona fide masterpiece, combining a broad palette of styles and influences, from tango and Cole Porter to Berg's Lulu and mordant atonality, all scored with brilliant invention for an ensemble of 15 musicians (here conducted by the composer). But Adès, born in 1971, succeeds where others have stumbled: he's a true man of the theater, and there's no pastiche in the music, which rises above the level of collage (except for one purposely inserted camp tune) and instead coheres into a seamless, thrusting, witty, highly dramatic whole. The four-member cast, led by Jill Gomez as the Duchess, is right on target. Valdine Anderson portrays a series of mocking antagonists (given high-wire acrobatic vocalisms) who precipitate the downfall, while Niall Morris and Roger Bryson bring engaging variety to their multiple roles as the male figures in the Duchess's world. An event not to be missed. --Pierre Ruhe
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Opera of the future? Hmm... I don't think so,
By Simon (London, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Adès: Powder Her Face (Audio CD)
I think it's perfectly possible to have an viewpoint lyingsomewhere in between. I bought it on the basis of a wildlyenthusiastic review in Music Magazine, which mentioned the work in the same breath as the great operas of Berg, Britten et al. Aside from that there was the instrinsic fascination of hearing a work written by a guy who went to the same school as myself, and who was always getting heaps of praise from his school-mates about how brilliant he was (though as a pianist rather than a composer). However, as so often in the case of a promising young `star', I believe this opera has received in many musical quarters the kind of excessive critical appraisal that does neither the work nor the composer any favours. Comparing the work to Wozzeck and the great operas of Britten is hyberbole driven to excess. There are certainly passages of genuine dramatic intensity, but these are rarely sustained and nothing comparable to the horror experienced in Wozzeck; and Ades has yet to acquire Britten's succinct characterisation and direct emotional appeal that makes his operas such great works. To begin with: the libretto. Others may disagree, but in using a semi-biographical story based on the sordid sex life of a beautiful but ultimately tragic aristocrat, Ades encountered from the start an uphill struggle. Surely no one will make the mistake in the future of attempting to write an opera based on Princess Di's failed marriage and untimely death! This inevitably results in a problem piece; a piece too sophisticated and eseoteric in idiom to appeal to the masses in spite of its soap-opera-like plot, but too banal and shallow in places (such as the Noel Coward pastiche) for it to be a great and convincing work of art. The elements of the popular and avant-garde do not for me coalesce. Ades is undeniably gifted when it comes to devising novel instrumental effects within an unconventional ensemble, what with its most unusual percussion section (including a fishing reel among other things!); but too often this results in superficiality; there is much surface gloss but not enough depth of emotion. There are exceptions, notably the closing scene with the Duchess lamenting her declining reputation, but these come like oasises in a desert. There is a host of allusions, sometimes clever disguised, to a variety of popular styles, such as jazz, cabaret and Broadway but these have little relevance to the more seriously intentioned parts of the work. Moreover, I don't feel that Ades sufficiently disguises the element of pastiche often prevalent in the work. Kurt Weill, and even Britten to some extent had no hesitation in employing popular idioms in their work, but these always came with an underlying cynicism and bitterness (as in Mahler). The opera improves in the second half, when the Duchess's declining fortunes begin to catch up with her, and the music is shed of most of its previous pastiche. However there remain other problems; there is too much dialogue, and this is largely the fault of the libretto, I'm afraid. Based on real life events, rather than ancient mythology or Shakespearean dramas (as in the Wagner or Verdi operas), the opera's characters 'talk' too much, rather than make any really meaningful statements, and this poses real problems when setting their dialogue to music. There is too much recitative, and when there is melodic writing for the singers, it too often submerges what's going on in the small orchestra, making listening very heavy going without the aid of the plot. I should be able to enjoy the opera as absolute music, without constant recourse to the libretto in the CD sleeve notes, but I find it very difficult at times! It was only when I saw a Channel 4 production last Christmas that some of the complexities of the work and the relevance between music and words came to light, but this TV staging still failed to convince me that the work is a great masterpiece. Precocious as Ades certainly was (only 24!) when he wrote Powder her Face, he would have to be a genius even greater than Mozart, Mendelssohn or Britten to have created an example of the difficult genre opera that stands comparison with some of the greatest works ever written. Berg and Britten, for instance, were both well over 30 and truly experienced composers when they wrote their great operatic masterpieces. Powder her Face is undeniably the work of a greatly talented and still developing composer, but one whose talents I feel would be better directed in the spheres of orchestral and chamber music. Surely history will regard Asyla as a far more successful work than the much more hyped Powder her Face- and one which makes its point convincingly in a sixth of the time in which Powder her Face, I'm afraid, doesn't.
10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not Bowled Over by This,
By
This review is from: Adès: Powder Her Face (Audio CD)
When hot new composers are discussed in learned critical circles, one name that frequently appears is Thomas Ades. Ades is a young British composer and pianist who has made quite a stir with his brilliantly orchestrated, eclectic compositions, which feature elements from popular music, but filtered through a strongly modernist prism. Ades has created an impressive resume, with major commissions for full-scale work from around the globe, and has gained such champions as Sir Simon Rattle, who will be performing Ades' orchestral work, Asyla, in his New York debut with the Berlin Philharmonic. Not bad for a young composer only just barely thirty. Naturally, when a young talent such as this writes an opera, it is considered a major event. Unfortunately, despite the critical praise that Ades has received from some quarters, particularly from noted critic Paul Griffiths, I can't find much to celebrate in Power Her Face. Despite the witty orchestral writing, and some attractive use of tango material, to me, Powder Her Face is mostly devoid of dramatic and musical interest. The plot of the opera was derived from the life of the Duchess of Argyll, who led a scandalous sexual life, which is depicted rather graphically in the opera, before her downfall in a public trial and ultimately her disgraceful end. Outside of the shock value, I'm not sure what exactly attracted Ades and librettist Phillip Hensher to this subject. The characters in the opera are mere ciphers, not fully realized human beings. If they were going for the alienation techniques of Brecht, they missed one key element in Brecht's aesthetic, the fact that no matter how horrible the characters in a Brecht play, there is a fully drawn human being underneath, one that you end up having sympathy with despite yourself. In Powder Her Face, this dimension of humanity is almost completely absent. The only time the Duchess is anything but a caricature is in her final aria, which is just too little, too late for me. And ultimately, there is no point to the opera besides prurience. When Brecht put his lecherous or greedy characters on stage, there was an underlying social point being made. If there is a social point to Powder Her Face is it a pretty flimsy one, and one that has been made with more wit and style by more talented creators. Musically, Ades does show promise. The instrumentation is, as usual for the composer, quite innovative. Powder Her Face is called a "cabaret opera" a genre which Ades does get credit for inventing, though it's roots are in the Brecht/Weill collaborations of Three Penny Opera and Happy End. Ades is fascinated by the popular music of the time, and in between highly modernist phrases you hear snatches of Noel Coward-like melodies or tango tunes. The writing for voices is more problematic. Ades is not a bad setter of words. The language can always be heard, even without recourse to the libretto. That's a sure test of skill in prosody. However, except for some set pieces in popular style, and the Duchess' last aria, the work is devoid of anything memorable. Opera need not be glowing with melody. Debussy proved that 100 years ago with Pelleas. But it needs something musical to draw the ear in, and Powder Her Face just doesn't have this. All in all, it gives the impression that it would have been much better as a play with some background music. Nothing in the work sounds as if it was compelled to be sung. Lest it be though that I am not a fan of Ades, I am. I like Asyla and some of the other instrumental pieces a lot. Though I don't think he is quite at the level that his supporters claim, I do think that, if he ignores some of the hype that has been attached to him, he will grow into a composer of real stature. But my sincere hope is that, when he tries another opera, and he should, that he examine more carefully the choice of subject, and try to go for something that really makes a statement. Shock value wears rather thin after a while.
21 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Future Of Modern Opera,
By A Customer
This review is from: Adès: Powder Her Face (Audio CD)
No opera about a sex-crazed English duchess could be all bad, right? "Powder Her Face" lives up to its rave UK reviews, and then some. Ades has an amazing knack of writing accessible music that is also totally modern. At times strongly reminiscent of Britten, at other times a pastiche of composers like Bartok or Stravinsky, his orchestration is powerful and innovative. To non-opera buffs, or those of a more lowbrow persuasion, the thought will occur: "this is what Frank Zappa could have achieved, if he'd tried a bit harder." The Five Star rating is no exaggeration. Watch for the great sloppy thirties-style ballads, Jill Gomez' excellent singing, and the sly way Ades nods a tribute to pretty much every musical form of the 20th century, while retaining proper operatic forms. Buy it!
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