Poulenc, Francis - La Voix humaine - Lott, Felicity (soprano)
Felicity Lott, soprano
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande / Armin Jordan
A young woman talks over the phone to her lover, whom we never hear; tomorrow he is going to marry someone else... Several times the conversation is interrupted as the line is cut, each time with dramatic effect; and behind this everyday banality, we realise that we are witnessing a veritable descent to the depths with this abandoned woman. Three years after La Voix humaine (his "sad and lovely child", as he used to refer to it with Denise Duval, its first performer), Poulenc was to conclude his collaboration with Cocteau by writing the short monologue that completes this CD: he musical style has not changed, but this time, the depths are those of the Mediterranean, in which the old lady of Monte-Carlo, "a dead woman among the dead" has decided to plunge for the last time... This title was released for the first time in 2001.
"Her French is miraculously idiomatic: Cocteau's text is wordy, and Poulenc often sets it at a pace that would defeat some French sopranos, but Lott captures the pathos and near-hysteria of the part brilliantly." Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times, 11 November 2001
"A virtuoso performance, sung with an ideal fusion of emotion and technique." Michael Kennedy, The Sunday Telegraph, 18 November 2001
"This is Lott at her finest: the synthesis of a lifetime's experience in Poulenc's sharp, clever style. Her complex interpretation of La Voix Humaine could well prove to be definitive." Anna Picard, Independent on Sunday, 9 December 2001