In Friday’s (4/29) New York Times, Gabrielle Ferrari writes, “The most tantalizing kind of urban eavesdropping is a phone call overheard on the street…. Such is the fascination of Francis Poulenc’s operatic monodrama ‘La Voix Humaine,’ which like the Jean Cocteau play it is based on stages one side of a breakup call … It is onstage at David Geffen Hall this week, in a New York Philharmonic performance directed and conducted by, as well as starring, the soprano Barbara Hannigan. At the Philharmonic, ‘La Voix Humaine’ is paired with … Richard Strauss’s ‘Metamorphosen.’… Hannigan led ‘Metamorphosen’ with sinuous and expansive gestures…. Her self-conscious stylization was put to excellent use in ‘La Voix Humaine.’ The nameless woman’s attempts at breezy intimacy give way to manipulations and increasingly brittle fantasy as she realizes that her lover is not returning…. Hannigan has sung this part before, but in her multitasking role here she orchestrates the experience, binding the ensemble to her voice and gestures. What results is an astonishing technical and physical feat from her. She embodies and directs Poulenc’s music with rigorous choreographic precision and splendid vocal variety. Her production includes video by Clemens Malinowski … Hers is an intelligent, off-putting and utterly spellbinding production, with a vicious irony that implicates and fascinates.”
