Experience Poulenc's Exquisite Melancholy

Whilst Poulenc's poignant La Voix Humaine is essentially an aural monologue for a single soprano, the one-act opera packs as much, if not more, emotional punch as a full-scale grand opera. Based on Jean Cocteau's play of the same name, the demanding melodrama plumbs the depth of despair and scales the height of technique. Experience its bittersweet melancholy during a brand new production by the Opera Philadelphia, featuring American soprano Patricia Racette.

Originally set in France in the late 50s, La Voix Humaine gives the audience a fly-on-the-wall perspective of a heartbreaking, intimate phone call. An elegant woman converses with a man who had once kept her as his mistress, but now has moved on, leaving her distraught. At first dignified, her mournful melodies become interrupted by life-like, painful pauses as she bids him farewell and prepares to take her own life. Pack tissues...