(c) Vincent Pontet La Voix Humaine: Théâtre des Champs‐Elysées
Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées — Main Hall
About the Event
A mirror effect with contemporary resonances as Poulenc enters into dialogue with composer Thierry Escaich.
Program
La Voix humaine
Francis Poulenc / Jean Cocteau
Point d’orgue
Thierry Escaich / Olivier Py
In 1958, two years after Dialogues des Carmélites, Poulenc composed La Voix humaine, a one‐act work featuring a solo female character dealing alone with her distress after the collapse of a relationship. Thierry Escaich, a multifaceted and multi‐talented composer, whose rich writing for orchestra is suffused with sacred resonances, decided to compose a companion piece to Poulenc’s work entitled Point d’orgue. The challenge he set himself was to imagine a sequel in the form of the resumption of the dialogue between Him and Her. Working in counterpoint to Cocteau’s words, Olivier Py, who is steeped in the world of theatre and writes in a modern idiom, offers a human and humanist vision of the couple’s dialogue. The quartet of Patricia Petibon, Cyrille Dubois, Jean‐Sébastien Bou and Olivier Py premiered this show to an empty auditorium in March 2021 as COVID was raging worldwide. It seems appropriate now to reunite the cast and see and hear these two pieces in counterpoint in which they had demonstrated such a successful and strong commitment to contemporary creation, working closely with set designer Pierre‐André Weitz. This diptych has dialogue at its heart – between the two people on the brink of breaking up, in words, and between two sensitive and deeply modern musicians.
Cast / Production
Ariane Matiakh | direction
Olivier Py | staging
Pierre‐André Weitz | design, costumes
Bertrand Killy | lights
Patricia Petibon | La femme / Elle
Jean‐Sébastien Bou | Lui
Cyrille Dubois | L’Autre
Orchestre National de France
Address
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, 15, Avenue Montaigne, Paris, France — Google Maps
