The Human Voice by Poulenc, Dc. 23 Febr. 2022, De (2022/2022), Director musical Barbara Hannigan, Barbican Centre, London, United Kingdom

Barbara Hannigan conducts, presents and sings Poulenc’s opera La Voix Humaine: a heart, a soul and a whole human life, in one devastating telephone call. ‘Just a look could change everything … but with this telephone between us, what’s done is done. Don’t worry – no-one ever tries to kill themselves twice’. Alone in her bedroom, a young woman makes a call, as soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan brings all her artistry to a one-woman opera that connects straight to the heart. We don’t know who she’s calling, or the story that has brought her to stake everything on a single shaky connection – but as the one-sided conversation unfolds, we find ourselves living every tear, every memory and every bitter, desperate hope. La Voix Humaine turns a monologue by Cocteau into a drama that burns itself onto your memory. Who better to take the central role than Barbara Hannigan, a performer who charges everything she performs with the immediacy and honesty of life itself?