Significant French Operas
Titles beginning with V
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La Voix humaine
Lyric tragedy in 1 act
Music by Francis Poulenc
Libretto by Jean Cocteau
First Performance: Opéra-Comique, Paris, February 6, 1959
Cast:
The
Woman Soprano
Background
Synopsis
The woman, jilted by her lover who is about to marry another girl, engages in a farewell phone conversation, often interrupted by disconnections and other voices on the line. Her moods change quickly from anguish to a forced calm and back again. She discloses that she has taken sleeping pills to no effect, and we see her wind the telephone cord around her neck in a desperate gesture. She speaks standing, sitting, prone, supine, on her knees, roaming the room to the extent of the phone cord, finally falling on the bed, her head hanging, the phone receiver lying like a stone.
Libretto
Links
Last updated: January 08, 2008