La voix humaine

The Human Voice (La Voix Humaine ) is a mono opera by Francis Poulenc, based on a play by Jean Cocteau. It was premiered on February 6, 1959 at the Komische Oper in Paris. It belongs to the genre of opera literature. It is often omitted in performances on the orchestral accompaniment in favor of more intimate piano accompaniment.

Content

A woman is abandoned by her partner. From the snippets of conversation time and again interrupted phone calls with him the image of a broken relationship, their structures and sensitivities arises. We are witnessing the desperate attempt by the woman to make what happened on the phone back. The peculiarities of the medium taking advantage of phone, it first tries to fool your opponent, something. Played your strength and busyness are just attempts to win him back, as the gradually visible anxiety, despair or the evocative memories of the happy allegedly shared past. But neither their attempts to show understanding, nor bear fruit the description of her suicide attempt. So she learns the boundaries of the restricted communication by wire. She starts the phone that begs the same time, as " terrible weapon " to see and gives the object the blame for the futility of their efforts ("... we saw each other, you could lose your head, forgotten promises, the impossible and win the one you love [ ... ]. one look could change everything. Yet through all this apparatus is now off. "). You must realize that he also used the phone for his own purposes. Again and again he interrupts her changing moods and emotional outbursts by banal with questions. He also lied to her when he told her he was calling from home with her to. For all the real pain they manipulated just like him the other side. He wants to break up the next day with a clear conscience with his new lover to Marseille, they can not and will not accept ( "Because the things that I do not imagine, do not exist " ) separation. In the end the woman, like Cocteau, with the telephone cord strangled.

Effect

The human voice is a prime example of a mono opera, not least because of their low expense ( a singer with a piano possible) is easy to implement. It was played as good as in all German theaters and is a regular part of the repertoire. The challenge for the singer in addition to the musical demands the tremendous emotional swings that make this game to a large representational challenge. Poulenc had therefore the role not want to give to Maria Callas at the premiere, but he had the role of the soprano Denise Duval play.

Performances (Selection)

• Staatstheater Darmstadt, 1999 Doris Brüggemann ( Director: Kay link)
• Theater Aachen, 2001 Gerlinde sower ( Director: Arila Siegert )
• Cologne Opera, Nicola Beller Carbone 2010 ( Director: Bernd Mottl )
• Staatsoper Stuttgart, 2011, Leandra Overmann ( Directed by Calixto Beito )