Poulenc: The Human Voice - Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle (Poulenc: La Voix Humaine - Bartók: Le Château de Barbe-Bleue) 6 years old

A unique merger of two one-act operas

Running through Bartók’s disenchanted tale, whose haunting music was initially condemned as unplayable, and the expression of despair in Poulenc’s monologue, the director Krzysztof Warlikowski perceives a shared dramatic thread, a shared feminine consciousness and a shared sense of imprisonment and suffocation: for the woman who penetrates the confines of Bluebeard’s castle and Elle, the woman who clings to a telephone conversation with a man as the only thing worth living for, are condemned to share the same fate. And this man she speaks to, does he really exist? Unless the director has interpreted Cocteau’s words to the letter and the telephone has become a “terrifying weapon that leaves no trace, makes no noise”…

Credits

Poulenc: The Human Voice - Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle Cast

Name	Character
Barbara Hannigan She was 47, now 53 years old	as Her

Poulenc: The Human Voice - Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle Crew

Name	Department
Jean Cocteau as Writer. He was 128 (74) years old when He died	Writing
Béla Balázs as Writer. He was 133 (64) years old when He died	Writing