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Poulenc's La voix humaine

” […] the closeness the camera brought to the whole enterprise brought an almost intimate air to the performance, and the emotions were as grand as they were immediate, something I have no doubt would be lost on the opera stage.”  Read more >>

Arturo Fernandez, Schmopera

MOP 20

MOP 20 > La voix humaine

Composer: Francis Poulenc | Librettist: Jean Cocteau

Alone in a room and unable to leave, Elle stares at her computer and phone, willing them to ring, desperate for a call from the only person who understands her. When the call finally comes, she is plunged even more deeply into a journey that threatens to overwhelm her as she struggles to hold on to the voice on the other end of the line.

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Alone in a room, exhausted and trapped, a woman known as Elle struggles to connect. In her way stands not only faulty technology but also interpersonal misunderstanding and miscommunication, alongside her own encroaching depression. As much as she detests the limits of the communication device in her hands, she knows she would be lost without it—it is the only thing tethering her to the person she cares most about and, ultimately, to reality.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the MOP team saw inevitable parallels between Poulenc and Cocteau’s 1958 monodrama and the time in which we live now. The pandemic has made us even more dependent on technology than our usual 21st century level of attachment. We can’t help but feel grateful for its existence and we look to calls, texting, and social networking as a link to the communities we have been forced to leave behind. At the same time, we resent it for not being even close to a substitute for real, in-person interaction. Bad reception, bugs in apps, bluetooth misfires, and uninstalled updates often leave us frustrated and gesturing fruitlessly to the person on the other end of the call who has frozen, muted themselves, or driven into a reception dead zone. When we do find ourselves with another person, we are often glued to our phones. No matter how many different modes of communication we may have at our fingertips, our devices continually connect and divide us in equal measure.

In contrast to the contemporary illusion of control we hold over our devices, the 1950s “party line” which Elle must navigate in the original writing was a kind of “wild wild west” of telecommunications. A lone operator presided over an open line of personal calls ranging from the mundane to the intimate. The upper class “subscribers” certainly had a better chance of maintaining a private connection, but interlopers could still find their way in. This lack of privacy and feeling of constant monitoring strikes a chord with the contemporary culture of surveillance; what we say and do online is often watched or monitored without our consent, and even a video call doesn’t necessarily betray the true location or loyalties of the person on the other end, or tell us who else may be listening just out of the frame.

During this pandemic, many people either feel isolated or suffocated by those with whom they are quarantined. Many remain in abusive relationships or are unable to receive adequate care for pressing mental health concerns. Performing arts companies like our own must continually reckon with the great unknown: When will we be able to perform together, for live audiences again? Can recorded performances be as impactful as live ones? What is the value of human connection, communication, and the sound of the human voice during this time? MOP’s production of La voix humaine strives to make a meaningful contribution to this dialogue. 

We urge anyone who is struggling with their mental health during this time to reach out to the resources we highlight in the production’s end credits.

CAST

Elle

Theodora Cottarel

Collaborative pianist

Celeste Johnson

CREATORS

Director

Adrienne Boris

Editor

Julien Rohel

Sound engineer

Ken Silber

PRESS

Schmopera

“…did a wonderful job of highlighting soprano Theodora Cottarel’s electrifying performance as Elle, the sole character we see throughout the show. Cottarel acted her part gloriously well, conveying so much information about the way her moods swung throughout the performance with even just the slightest twitch of her brow that it really only amplified the moods Poulenc conjured in his score. Her singing voice, too, was absolutely perfect for Voix humaine, and the way she maintained a beauty of tone through much of Poulenc’s heavily recitative-like writing for the character while also finding great ways to color the characters’ neuroses was masterful.” 

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