I'd never heard of this monodrame of Poulenc, with a text by Jean Cocteau, until very recently, when a sound recording was released with Veronique Gens and the Orchestre national de Lille. I immediately bought this, which happily includes the libretto, duly printed out.
Then I discovered the Poulenc double-bill available of Glyndebourne Encore streaming site, in Laurent Pelly's production. It is about a woman whose relationship of five years has been ended by her lover. The music is perfectly civilised, with no Second Vienna School howls and shrieks, the libretto is in perfectly restrained and polite French, so there's no Expressionism either. M. Pelly gives us a minimal decor: just a small oblong stage, and a line of crimson light projected across the dark back drop, and a telephone by means of which the protagonist speaks to the man who has just dropped her, and by means of which we hear her self-delusions, her struggle to retain some kind of poise, her struggles with a party-line in which other people are obviously interrupting her, and her struggles to retain some kind of hope. It should be banal, but it isn't. The performance by Mme d'Oustrac, right from her first appearance, is overwhelmingly powerful. Paradoxically, the singer is best known to me for her roles of immensely powerful heroineswomen - well, one woman and one goddess - In Lully's 'Atys' and 'Armide'.

Cocteau, it strikes me, was an odd mixture of the extremely silly and works of absolute genius. Among the latter I'd have included his two great films, 'Orphee' and 'La Belle et la Bete', the novel 'Les Enfants Terribles' - the only one I've actually read - and now, I think we have to say, 'La Voix Humaine.'

Andrew Clarke
Canberra

On Tuesday, February 21, 2023 at 8:42:52 AM UTC+1, Andrew Clarke wrote:
> I'd never heard of this monodrame of Poulenc,
> The music is perfectly civilised, with no Second Vienna School howls and shrieks, the libretto is in perfectly restrained and polite French, so there's no Expressionism either.

Why is this so important? BTW depending on one's ears, the opera starts with shrieks and howls in the woodwinds. However, essentially LVH is a small scale domestic drama, a one-person opera. The emotions of the heroine are quite overwhelming, so more shrieks would have been OD.

There is also a performance by Barbara Hannigan who sings and conducts at the same time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2V85r8S_B4

On 21.02.23 08:53, Herman wrote:
> On Tuesday, February 21, 2023 at 8:42:52 AM UTC+1, Andrew Clarke wrote:
>> I'd never heard of this monodrame of Poulenc,
>> The music is perfectly civilised, with no Second Vienna School howls and shrieks, the libretto is in perfectly restrained and polite French, so there's no Expressionism either.
>
> Why is this so important? BTW depending on one's ears, the opera starts with shrieks and howls in the woodwinds. However, essentially LVH is a small scale domestic drama, a one-person opera. The emotions of the heroine are quite overwhelming, so more shrieks would have been OD.
>
> There is also a performance by Barbara Hannigan who sings and conducts at the same time.
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2V85r8S_B4

Before I read Herman's reply, I was about to search out precisely the
link to that performance... I think one could rightly say that Hannigan
sings, conducts, *and acts* the performance. Someone, in a music forum,
advertised the youtube video when it was new; back then, I went there
for the stunt, and couldn't turn it off. An amazing artist, she is.

Bastian

On Wednesday, February 22, 2023 at 2:58:40 AM UTC+11, Bastian Kubis wrote:
> On 21.02.23 08:53, Herman wrote:
> > On Tuesday, February 21, 2023 at 8:42:52 AM UTC+1, Andrew Clarke wrote:
> >> I'd never heard of this monodrame of Poulenc,
> >> The music is perfectly civilised, with no Second Vienna School howls and shrieks, the libretto is in perfectly restrained and polite French, so there's no Expressionism either.
> >
> > Why is this so important? BTW depending on one's ears, the opera starts with shrieks and howls in the woodwinds. However, essentially LVH is a small scale domestic drama, a one-person opera. The emotions of the heroine are quite overwhelming, so more shrieks would have been OD.
> >
> > There is also a performance by Barbara Hannigan who sings and conducts at the same time.
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2V85r8S_B4
> Before I read Herman's reply, I was about to search out precisely the
> link to that performance... I think one could rightly say that Hannigan
> sings, conducts, *and acts* the performance. Someone, in a music forum,
> advertised the youtube video when it was new; back then, I went there
> for the stunt, and couldn't turn it off. An amazing artist, she is.
>
> Bastian

The main difference between Ms Hannigan's performance and that of Mme D'Oustrac is of course that in the latter case you can't see it without having paid a subscription to Glyndebourne, while in the former case you can see it for free if you don't mind the ads smart phones and over the counter medications to promote sleep and reduce the stresses of everyday life. And I gather that as most members of this group are on welfare, this is an important consideration ...
The Glyndebourne subscription isn't cheap, but it's a good deal cheaper than going there, even if you are able to get tickets, and I imagine one might feel uncomfortable there if you don't have the right social connections. Spending the interval in the bike shelter with a packet of cheese and tomato sandwicjhes and a bottle of fizzy stuff just won't cut it with the picnic hamper and Range Rover brigade, I'm afraid.
I am, in any case increasingly convinced that streaming and/or self-produced CDs, are going to be the only way to go to survive for many if not most musical establishments.

Andrew Clarke
Canberra