Grange Park Opera

Claire Booth played the role of Eritrea, a lover of the hedonist emperor Eliogabalo, in Grange Park Opera’s 2009 production of Cavalli’s opera. 

Poulenc wrote three operas which each display a depth of feeling far distant from the cynical stylist of the 1920s.  Les Mamelles de Tiresias (composed 1947, performed Grange Park Opera 1999), Dialogues des Carmelites (composed 1957, performed Grange Park Opera 2013) and La Voix Humaine (1959). All three depict deep human suffering, reflecting the composer’s own struggles with depression.

The premise behind Poulenc’s one-woman opera could not be simpler: a woman sits alone in her room, talking to her lover on the telephone. We watch as the woman – designated only as Elle – learns that her lover will marry someone else the following day. Poulenc (1899-1963) found his text in a play by Jean Cocteau, who also designed and lit the original production. Poulenc’s tragédie lyrique was written for the great French soprano Denise Duval. Its forty minute phone call represents an intense emotional journey, a tour de force for a singing actor.

★★★★★ from The Telegraph

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ELLE ∙ CLAIRE BOOTH

PIANO ∙ CHRISTOPHER GLYNN

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