By Francis Poulenc
Based on a monologue by Jean Cocteau
This year’s co-production with Jeunesses Musicales Canada presents a double program in which comedy gives way to human drama. Poulenc’s La voix humaine takes on an almost verisimilitude of its own, as an amorous breakup is woven into the banal words of a telephone exchange. In this painful monologue, a woman, played by Innu soprano Elisabeth St-Gelais, tries to talk to her lover, gently exposing her sadness and pain at being abandoned on the telephone.
Je chante la nuit et autres mélodies (Night and other melodies)
In the first half, baritone Olivier Bergeron presents a selection of French melodies, where lightness contrasts with the lyrical tragedy of the second half. French operetta arias unite with Poulenc’s La voix humaine to form a rich, daring and contrasting whole.