Opera Review: Sex Crime

Opera Philadelphia mounts Powder Her Face.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Patricia Schuman as Margaret Campbell, the "dirty Duchess."
Photo by Kelly & Massa, © 2013 Opera Philadelphia.

For better or worse, the excessive lifestyle, erotic exploits and 1963 divorce proceedings of the late Margaret Campbell, the former Duchess of Argyll established the British tabloid as a journalistic institution. Thirty years later, Mrs. Campbell's tawdry affairs inspired a young British composer, Thomas Adés, to make the so-called "dirty Duchess" the subject of his first opera, Powder Her Face.