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Regency Rakes

Sound file

Following the sensational hit "oprette" Bittersweet (1928-9), Coward wrote another operetta for the French star Yvonne Printemps, Conversation Piece (1934), based on the book The Regent and his Daughter. Set in the Regency Era (1811-1820) of George IV, the musical follows the life of Melanie (Yvonne Printemps), a dance hall singer. Paul, an émigré duke from the French Revolution, attempts to marry his lady friend to a rich husband (passing her off as his ward). Meanwhile, Paul, too, is pursued by Lady Julia. The action is set against the background of life in a coastal town, Regency Brighton, where excessively behaved aristocracy mingle with soldiers, professionals, and courtesans. In the end, Paul and Melanie's love for each other triumphs over Paul's more calculated attempts to secure a fortune for them. Coward himself played the difficult role of Paul for a few months.

The Regency Era was a period of startling excess. In the song Regency Rakes, Coward provides a clever and telling snapshot of four English gentlemen, dissolute in their excesses of bingeing, pursuing "romance," and other diversions, yet still holding on to their "place in history" as a matter of pride and satisfaction.