Conversation Piece

Composer’s Notes

Conversation Piece was adapted by the English author and critic, Caryl Brahms, from a short curtain-raiser by the French dramatist, Foydeau. It was written for an English chamber ensemble in 1974.

Henriette, a young widow, and her debutante sister are preparing for a ball. Each has a secret lover whom she is eagerly awaiting. Unfortunately, it turns out that the same young man is courting both of them. At first they are angry, then disconsolate; but the strains of a waltz from the ball-room soon raise their spirits, and Henriette makes a discovery which convinces her that their hopes for romance may not be thwarted after all.

John Addison

Derived from a work of Feydeau, Conversation Piece concerns two sisters in confiding mood before a party. Dora is a debutante; Henriette a widow, enjoying the fruits of experience and the material benefits of marriage, without its encumbrances.

As they talk, each admits to a lover. But delight gives way to despair when, after recounting the virtues of their respective men, they learn that they are one and the same person.

Thus betrayed, their grief is further compounded when, in the social column of a newspaper, they read the announcement of his engagement to yet another girl. Henriette, however, finds reassurance in the notice, for it mentions the amount of the dowry which he is to receive. Clearly the marriage is to be one of policy rather than of passion.

Henriette advises her inexperienced sister of the significance of the situation, for fin-de-siècle Paris would not be unduly censorious in the face of their future flirt-energy in the time to come.

Original Score for “Conversation Piece”

Original Programme for “Conversation Piece”

Original Programme for “Conversation Piece” in June 1958