Diary of a Culture Hedonist

We were greeted with a drum rotate at the start of the opera - scenes introducing the characters from the opera. José Fardilha starred in the title role with a lot of subtlety (not just portraying an elderly gentleman), and at time he was able to eek out some sympathy from the audience - just a little. Norina (Erin Morley) and Ernesto (Josh Lovell) were fantastic with their well matched voice and superb acting. Morley's coloraturas were spellbindingly good. Huw Montague Rendall's Malatesta was fun and well matched.  The rotating drum allowed for fast-paced scene changes and intrigues throughout. Ben Glassberg adopted a fairly brisk tempo for the whole opera with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment responding to his every nuance. Great night.

Stéphanie d’Oustrac starred in this one act / single cast Poulenc opera. The minimalist stage (Caroline Ginet) consisted of a tilting platform with an old fashioned dial telephone. But that's all it took for the drama to unfold. d’Oustrac was able to draw us into her conversation, expressing the challenging feelings of frustration, anxiety, disappointment and dare we say hope? A superb performance it was.

The “relief” from La Voix Humaine  was this witty rendition of Les Mamelles de Tirésias . Elsa Benoit was Thérèse. Her annoyance and tantrum in front of her husband (played by Régis Mengus) was fun yet provocative. The floating mamellles were delightful. The best part was the appearance of the 40,049 babies on stage! All in all it was surreal, as Apollinaire / Poulenc intended.