LA VOIX HUMAINE

La Voix Humaine en Quarantaine premiered on 2 July 2021 at the Royal Theatre of The Hague

OPERA2DAY, LEKS compagnie & Classical NOW presented a poignant and - because of the Covid pandemic - very topical solo by mezzo-soprano and performer Ekaterina Levental: La Voix Humaine en Quarantaine

Alone in her room a woman has a live video chat with her ex - the next day he is about to marry another woman. She is desperate and makes a last attempt to mend the rift between them. He is weak. He's lying. She knows that. Inevitably she heads towards the loss of her relationship.

Who could have imagined the predictive value in 1928, when French all-round artist Jean Cocteau wrote La voix humaine:: a timeless, ultimate farewell letter in the form of a telephone conversation. Composer Francis Poulenc adapted this intense stage monologue in 1959 into an opera in one act and since then the work graced the repertoire of many companies. A few years ago, Dutch music theater company LEKS compagnie developed La voix humaine - Facetime, a staging that adds a whole new dimension to this classic, namely the individual human being who becomes detached from society as a whole, in a dangerous game with ever-changing truths. The phone from the original version was replaced by a webcam.

OPERA2DAY asked LEKS compagnie to adapt their staging of La Voix Humaine to the current developments in the Covid-19 crisis, since it fits wonderfully well to this year of social distancing and quarantine. In this version, the text Spuug (Spit) by Jibbe Willems, which was specially written for corona times for Theatergroep Oostpool's video program Troostpool, was used as a prologue. This text about a young woman who yearns for her lover was performed on stage for the first time.