January 14-February 5, 2012
The Telephone, The Human Voice
Two one act operas by Gian Carlo Menotti and Francis Poulenc
Presented by Lyric Opera of Los Angeles
Starring Amanda McAllister, Laura Sage,Eric Caramptan and Jay Stephenson
Robert Sage, Music Director and piano accompaniment
Stage Director Aleta Braxton
Comedy or tragedy: it all depends on who's calling!
Lyric Opera of Los Angeles presents two one-act operas at Fremont Centre Theatre. The two operas are thematically related, each having plots that center around telephones. Gian Carlo Menotti's comic The Telephone presents an exasperating situation that is especially resonant now that we all have mobile phones: poor Ben has a very important question for Lucy, but his attempts to ask it are constantly interrupted by telephone calls. Then the dramatic one-woman tour de force The Human Voice (La Voix Humaine) by Francis Poulenc (performed in an English translation) is a musical adaptation of Jean Cocteau's dramatic monologue of the same name.
Although the two pieces are not related, this production places Lucy as the heroine of the second piece as well, in which she has an emotional phone call with her former lover on the day before his marriage.
