Essential Opera is releasing Monica Pearce’s one-act opera Etiquette with Leaf Music. It features three influential 1920s women: author, critic and satirist Dorothy Parker, author and socialite Emily Post, and politician Nancy Astor. Emily Post’s book Etiquette was published in 1922, noting the importance of kindness and etiquette in all aspects of life. When reviewing the work, Parker observed, “Those who have mastered etiquette seem to arrive at exquisite dullness.”
Maureen Batt as Dorothy Parker, Erin Bardua as Emily Post, Lucy Hayes Davis as Nancy Astor, with pianist Tara Scott, and clarinetist Brad Reid.