Poulenc’s Monodrama of Love and Loss
With ›La voix humaine‹, Francis Poulenc created a monumental one-person play: Based on a text for the theatre by Jean Cocteau, his opera is about the end of a love affair, with all the facets of hope, self-deception and despair. ›La voix humaine‹ is »a painful and final conversation of a woman (Elle) with her ex-lover,« explains Barbara Hannigan, »in which we only hear her words, not his. This one-sided conversation is absolutely full of contradictions, lies, fantasy and desire. What I am most interested in, is the power, control, weakness and the ever-changing equilibrium of all of these aspects of ›Elle‹. I find myself asking if there even is an ex-lover? What and who really exists within these deep and true emotions of love, loss and loneliness?«
Barbara Hannigan makes the protagonist’s heart-rending dialogue her own in a unique way. In an impressive performance projected live on a large screen above the stage, the Canadian musician merges the roles of conductor and singer, combining with voice, body, gesture and choreography the music, text and plot into an impressive total work of art. On 14 January 2027, Hannigan, who is herself very transmutable, will preface Poulenc’s opera with ›Metamorphosen‹ by Richard Strauss – a melancholic funeral music with subtle overtones and philosophical depth.
Barbara Hannigan is currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphonic Orchestra as well as of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Associate Artist of London Symphony Orchestra and Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In August 2026, she will join the Iceland Symphony Orchestra as Principal Conductor and Artistic Director. With her rarely experienced double talent, she can also be heard regularly as a soprano performing programmes of concertos, lieder and chamber music, featuring primarily twentieth-century works. ›La voix humaine‹ will be her debut at the side of the DSO.