CD Review | Etiquette (Leaf Music, 2023)

Advertisement / Publicité

This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en: Francais (French)

80%

80%

Leaf Music
4
User Ratings (0 Votes)
0

Etiquette
Maureen Batt, Erin Bardua, sopranos; Lucy Hayes Davis, mezzo-soprano; Tara Scott, piano; Brad Reid, clarinet; Monica Pearce, composer; John Terauds, librettist
Leaf Music, September 2023

This world-première recording of Etiquette, a one-act chamber opera with music by Monica Pearce and libretto by John Terauds, features sopranos Maureen Batt and Erin Bardua, mezzo-soprano Lucy Hayes Davis, pianist Tara Scott, and clarinetist Brad Reid.

The opera takes its title from socialite Emily Post’s 1922 book of the same name, which has served as “the definitive guide to American manners” for over a century. Through the lens of Post’s book and satirist Dorothy Parker’s 1927 critique of the book, which was printed in The New Yorker, Etiquette is a glimpse into the 1920s from the point of view of three women: Parker, Post and politician Nancy Astor.

Etiquette clocks in at only 23 minutes long, unfolding in three vignettes. In the first and final scenes, Dorothy Parker, sung by Maureen Batt, reads from her article “Mrs. Post Enlarges on Etiquette,” wittily disparaging the socialite’s rules for politeness. Terauds succeeds in the difficult task of condensing Parker’s original 1,500-word article into an aria-appropriate length, while retaining its sharpness and humour. Pearce’s score matches the sarcasm of the libretto, alternating between moments of staccato levity and sweeping melodrama. Batt interprets the role with charisma and vocal flexibility. Scene 2, more dense and serious in tone, imagines a conversation between Post and Astor who, coincidentally, both became divorcées in the 1910s. Though it is at times difficult to decipher Bardua and Davis’s text in more dramatic moments, each delivers a consummate performance and they pair very nicely together. With only two instruments in the “orchestra” for this miniature opera, Pearce is clever to pair the versatile piano with a clarinet. Throughout the piece, especially in a brief but charming overture reminiscent of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, the clarinet evokes the atmosphere of the 1920s jazz age. Etiquette successfully transports listeners to Post, Parker, and Astor’s world.