​​Saturday 15 april 2023, 21:00
The Hague: Paleiskerk

​Francis Poulenc: A Portrait

​La Voix Humaine Facetime

reserve tickets

Tickets:  € 10 – € 27,50

​Ekaterina Levental mezzo-soprano
Yoram Ish Hurwitz piano (on tape) 
Chris Koolmees director

Programme

Francis Poulenc

La voix humaine

​From telephone to webcam

​Sitting alone in her room, a woman video-chats with her ex, who is getting married to someone else the next day. Desperate, she makes one last attempt to hold her relationship together. He is weak, he is lying and she knows it. Inevitably, she is heading for a final break-up. Theatre maker Chris Koolmees has translated La Voix Humaine into the present day. In his version of Jean Cocteau's famous theatrical monologue – set to Francis Poulenc's incomparable music – he does not show a woman on stage talking on the phone, but a webcam girl. A glorious role for singer and actress Ekaterina Levental.

We presented this performance in collaboration with LEKS Company and OPERA2DAY at the Royal Theatre in The Hague in 2020. "How penetratingly Levental gives voice and face to it with her gifted mezzo, perfect diction and strong presence," wrote the NRC. Now we bring this production by LEKS Compagnie to the Paleiskerk, where the audience can get even closer to the main character.

La Voix Humaine in de pers

​“Regisseur Chris Koolmees actualiseerde de telefoonconversatie treffend tot een Facetimegesprek met slecht netwerk, wat de frustraties van de vrouw maar al te invoelbaar maakt. We zien Leventals expressieve gezicht uitvergroot op scherm, nu eens hysterisch getourmenteerd, dan weer gelift door vergeefse hoop. Die uitersten dragen de voorstelling, en wat geeft Levental er met haar gave mezzo, perfecte dictie en sterke présence indringend stem en gezicht aan.”
NRC ****

​“Het scherm laat haar gezicht zien: vol vlekken make – up die ze verwijdert, maar die na het einde van de uitzichtloze conversatie weer terugkeren. Levental bracht haar verslag van wanhoop theatraal even indringend als vocaal; zij is een geweldige zangeres.”
Dagblad van het Noorden

“Ekaterina Levental embodied on stage the whole complex of qualities necessary for the performance of this complex part: the absolute disclosure of the possibilities and nuances of the sound of the voice, which allows to freely move between recitative episodes and full oases of sound, a phenomenal acting that provides self-sufficiency, physical and emotional endurance, which for the whole performance does not leave any musically or psychologically non-lived, “empty” second.”
​Olga Stelmashevska