La voix humaine

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Opera dates
Title: The human voice
Original title: La voix humaine
Shape: Monooper
Original language: French
Music: Francis Poulenc
Libretto : Jean Cocteau
Premiere: February 6, 1959
Place of premiere: Paris, Opéra-Comique
Playing time: about 40 minutes
Place and time of the action: today
people

La voix humaine (Eng .: the human voice ) is a monooper by Francis Poulenc based on a 1930 play by Jean Cocteau . It premiered on February 6, 1959 in the Salle Favart of the Opéra-Comique in Paris; Georges Prêtre conducted. It belongs to the genre of literary opera . Often the orchestral accompaniment is dispensed with in favor of the more intimate piano accompaniment during performances.

Wolfgang Binal (1938–2014) created a German translation of the libretto.

content

A woman has been abandoned by her partner. The scraps of conversation from the repeatedly interrupted phone calls with him create the image of a broken relationship, its structures and sensitivities. We see the woman's desperate attempt to undo what happened on the phone. Using the special features of the telephone medium, she first tries to fool her counterpart. Their feigned strength and busyness are just as much attempts to win him back as the gradually visible fear, their despair or the evocative memories of their supposedly happy past together. But neither their attempts to show understanding nor the description of their suicide attempt are fruitful. This is how she experiences the limits of restricted communication by wire. She begins to see the phone, which she begs at the same time, as a “terrible weapon” and blames the object for the futility of her efforts (“... when we saw each other, one could lose one's head, forget promises, dare the impossible and the win that one loves [...]. Only one look could change everything. But with this device everything is over. "). She has to realize that he too is using the phone for his own purposes. Because he repeatedly interrupts their changing moods and emotional outbursts with banal questions. He also lies to her when he explains that he is calling her from home. With all real pain, she manipulates the other side just like him. The next day he wants to leave for Marseille with his new lover with a clear conscience, she cannot and does not want to accept the separation (“Because the things that I do not imagine do not exist”). In the end, the woman drops the phone. It remains to be seen whether she is strangling herself with the telephone cord.

effect

La voix humaine is a prime example of a mono-opera, which is easy to implement, not least because of its low effort (one singer, possible with a piano). It was played in almost all German theaters and is regularly on the repertoire. The challenge for the singer, in addition to the musical demands, is the enormous emotional fluctuations that require great performance. Poulenc therefore did not want to give the role to Maria Callas at the premiere , but had the part played by the soprano Denise Duval .

Performances (selection)

literature

  • La voix humaine. In: Reclam's Opernlexikon. Digital library volume 52. Philipp Reclam jun., 2001, p. 2668 ff.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Hagmann: The gentleman at the desk. He was Maria Callas' preferred conductor - now Georges Prêtre has died at the age of 92 . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of January 6, 2017, p. 38.
  2. ^ Francis Poulenc, Jean Cocteau: La voix humaine. The human voice. Vocal score. Ricordi, Paris / Feldkirchen near Munich 1994
  3. ↑ The human voice (La voix humaine). Program booklet Theater Dortmund, Dortmund 1997, OCLC 180065916 ( limited preview in the Google book search)
  4. ^ The human voice , Theater Koblenz on Facebook , 2015, accessed on March 16, 2019.
  5. ↑ Description of the contents of the online music magazine