La Voix Humaine/Dido and Aeneas, Opera North | reviews, news & interviews
La Voix Humaine/Dido and Aeneas, Opera North
La Voix Humaine/Dido and Aeneas, Opera North
Poulenc and Purcell make for an enjoyable if uneven coupling
“All we do is talk!” complains the unnamed protagonist in Poulenc’s brilliantly concise one-act opera La Voix Humaine, a faithful setting from late on in the composer’s career of Cocteau’s 1930 play. Banter is what you don’t get; the heroine’s dialogue with her former lover is conducted via an unreliable landline. The audience hears only one side of the conversation.
Poulenc’s irrepressible warmth and melodic gifts are largely downplayed, though having the telephone’s ringing suggested via a trilling xylophone is a witty touch. Poulenc saw the piece as autobiographical, and the edginess is disconcerting. This is a revelatory new production, the opera’s poignancy and caustic humour brilliantly highlighted. Lesley Garrett’s performance is good enough to silence any naysayers – time spent treading the boards in West End musicals has sharpened her acting skills and clarified her diction. She’s wholly credible; trembling nervously at the start, chain-smoking and passing the receiver shakily from hand to hand.
What should be lucid and easy to follow becomes obtuse and slightly maddening
While director Aletta Collins’s background as a choreographer ensures that all her characters move with conviction, it is especially telling with Garrett’s simplest moves – pulling off her wig, stubbing out a cigarette. And her voice, though not enormous, is in good shape, only occasionally overwhelmed by Poulenc’s sporadic louder tuttis. Garrett is at her best in the opening moments, Garrett successfully negotiating every twist and kink while never sounding forced. She sounds more hesitant and uneasy as the work proceeds, nicely mirroring her character’s physical collapse. Only Collins’s visual effects jar slightly. They’re ingenious and deftly achieved, but add little, spelling out crudely what Cocteau and Poulenc achieve so subtly through words and music. Still, this is a welcome chance to savour a minor masterpiece from an underrated composer. But, at 40 minutes, what do you programme it with?
Opera North have chosen another one-acter featuring a forsaken heroine: Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. It sounds ravishing – lutes and theorbo in the orchestral pit producing bewitching sounds, while the chorus, as usual, is terrific. But Collins’s direction left me baffled, if beguiled, with dancers acting as doubles for Dido and an overabundance of female cast members wearing thick red lipstick, identical ginger wigs and black nightdresses. What should be lucid and easy to follow becomes obtuse and slightly maddening. At certain points you feel you could be watching an oblique take on the video to Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love.”
And yet as a series of beautiful tableaux this Dido and Aeneas is mesmerising. The recycling of props, costumes and gestures from La Voix Humaine is cleverly done, and the set’s clean, uncluttered lines provide an effective backdrop. Pamela Helen Stephen (pictured above right with dancers and witches) and Amy Freston as Dido and Belinda are flawless, though my favourite moment was Nicholas Watts’s sweetly eloquent “Come away, fellow sailors”. Wyn Davies conducts both works with affection. An uneven night, but an enjoyable one.
- La Voix Humaine/Dido and Aeneas at Leeds Grand Theatre on 17, 19, 21 and 23 February then touring to Newcastle, Belfast, Salford Quays and Nottingham
rating
Explore topics
Share this article
Add comment
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
more Opera
![The maestro composes: Constantine Akritides as Puccini](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Web-TheButterflyHouse-Credit-SteveGregson-132%20%281200x800%29.jpg?itok=vm22KyxW)
![Smoke signals: Clare Presland in 'Il Segreto di Susanna'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/ss%20sus%20fag_0.jpg?itok=Hmrn-W8p)
![Lucia Lucas outside The Dream Tent in Birmingham](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/AF_053_New_Year_Cast_%26_Rehearsal_BOC.jpg?itok=AZ21jes9)
![Stirring stuff: Roman Arndt as Ernani, with chorus, in Buxton International Festival’s production of the opera](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Roman%20Arndt%20as%20Ernani%20centre%20with%20chorus%20%282%29%20%281200x801%29_0.jpg?itok=-d-p2F-d)
![Katharina Kastening: 'the underlying message regarding the danger in female stereotyping is one that unfortunately persists in our societies'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Carmen%201.jpeg?itok=Dat42NmJ)
![Crazy for you: Iestyn Davies as Orlando, with Rachel Redmond](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/orl%20id%20rr%202.jpg?itok=9-jsGU3Z)
![Bethany Horak-Hallett's vivid Cherubino gets close to Samantha Clarke's peereless Countess](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Figaro-Website-Gallery-4.jpg?itok=g0_-fr3Z)
![Ideal lovers: Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen as Cesare and Louise Alder as Cleopatra](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Cesare%201_0.jpeg?itok=LSFZkxQu)
![The statue of Smetana, born 200 years ago, presides over the main square of his native Litomyšl](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/1000021319.jpg?itok=j5ytrfbY)
!['Gianni Schicchi' WNO cast](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Trittico%201_0.jpg?itok=TC84p4VF)
![It's the music, stupid - or perhaps more a comedy with musical attachments](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Merry%20Widow%201_0.jpg?itok=XnkTx-3g)
![Ingeborg Bröcheler greets the crowds at the start of 'Giulio Cesare'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Cesare%201.jpg?itok=cTfPnuq3)
Comments
What should have been a
I have to disagree profoundly
This comment expresses a