Powder Her Face

Last night we heard a performance of Thomas Adès's opera "Powder Her Face" at BAM. This opera, written in 1994, is notorious for its fellatio scene; it chronicles the decline of a duchess, based on the true life story of the Duchess of Argyll.  The opera begins with a series of raucous, debauched episodes, with music that frequently alludes to popular styles, but transformed by Adès into something quite his own.   The famous fellatio scene was overstaged by the director, who has some 25 fully nude men emerge from various places in the Duchess's hotel room, so while she goes about her business of seducing a waiter, there are these 25 men crowding the stage, not doing very much.   Makes for great publicity, though.   The opera really comes in to its own in the second act, with the Duchess's downfall, and her very moving aria, which resembles that of Berg's Lulu.  Indeed, the whole second act echoes Berg's Lulu, both character-wise and musically, with a haunting, elegiac quality which clearly shows Adès's empathy with his main character. The staging, which emphasizes the sort of tawdry, sordid celebrity-driven aspects of the story, detracts from the music here, which I think is profound and moving.