Powder Her Face

[uwsman2]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned this yet - the Thomas Ades opera presented by NYC Opera at BAM over the past two weeks. I saw it last night. One eye-catching feature of the first act is a scene with a few dozen nude men - most of them very well built - loitering about the stage as the Duchess of Argyll seduces a room service waiter by giving him a blow job! Apart from that, there is Ades' very inventive score, terrific singing from studly barihunk Matt Boehler, and a very provocative re-imagination of the beautiful woman divorced by her noble husband on 88 counts of adultery ("based on a true story, as they say"). I think the entire short run of this production came near to selling out. It looked packed last night.