Cat No DVDDC10002

Written by Thomas Adès in 1995, at the age of 24, Powder Her Face is based on the life of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, a woman brazenly avaricious for money and sexual experience but whose story, remarks Adès, shows that “even horrible people are tragic”.

Set in the early 1990s, the aged and isolated duchess is seen living at London’s Dorchester Hotel, oblivious to her now strained financial circumstances and her imminent eviction. A series of flashbacks to her colourful past in the ’30s, ’50s and ’60s, are enacted by three hotel workers who, in the present, treat her with barely-concealed derision.

Mary Plazas’ powerful portrayal of the duchess is complemented by the performances of Heather Buck, Daniel Norman and Graeme Broadbent, and Thomas Adès himself conducts the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.