Ekaterina Levental, mezzo-soprano
Chris Koolmees, direction
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La Voix Humaine is a true classic, originally written as a theatre monologue. Jean Cocteau's text originated in 1930, the early days of telephony. Francis Poulenc composed music to it in 1958, creating this opera in one act. The version you hear tonight brings the desperate conversation between a camgirl and her ex to the present day. She desperately resists the final goodbye via video chat. That we as an audience hear only her voice means that her interlocutor's words are left to our imagination, while at the same time we can perfectly sympathise with her despair. Never has heartbreak sounded so heartbreakingly beautiful.
La Voix Humaine FaceTime combines the original text with excerpts from another one-act play by Cocteau, Le Bel Indifférent, written for Édith Piaf in 1940. Chris Koolmees thus created a staging that adds a whole new dimension to this classic: man detached from society, in a dangerous game of ever-changing truths.
This programme lasts an hour and has no break.
Spit (text: Jibbe Willems)
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
La Voix Humaine (Cocteau)
The piano part at La Voix Humaine is penned by Yoram Ish-Hurwitz.
Chris Koolmees / director
Chris Koolmees studied at the Academie voor Beeldende Vorming Tilburg and the AKI Enschede and started his career as set and lighting designer and direction assistant for various theatre groups. Since 1989, he has worked as a designer for Dutch and Belgian TV producers, designing sets and leaders. He also works as a concept developer and designer on exhibitions and develops interactive installations for the public space and also applies these in his theatre design. In his work as a theatre director, he explores new ways of staging classical and contemporary music. Together with Ekaterina Levental, he forms LEKS Company and produces small-scale music theatre projects for a wide audience.
Ekatarina Levental / mezzo-soprano
Ekatarina Levental graduated cum laude in principal subjects singing at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and harp at ArtEZ Conservatorium in Enschede, the Hochschule für Musik Detmold and Codarts Rotterdam. She can be heard in several opera roles and performs as a theatre performer in her own productions accompanying herself on harp. With pianist Frank Peters, Levental has in recent years worked on the Medtner Project for which they recorded all the songs of Russian composer Nikolai Medtner.
With director Chris Koolmees, Levental is developing several musical theatre projects, including the autobiographical triptych The Way, The Border and Queen of Spades. In these personal performances, she takes the audience on the road she travelled with her family from her native Tashkent to the Netherlands.
Theatre Figi / Willem Pijperzaal / Het Rond 2 / 3701 HS Zeist
Ekatarina Levental with her cool mezzo, perfect diction and strong presence, gives penetrating voice and face to La Voix humaine.
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