Marble City Opera Presents a Double-bill
of
Menotti's The Telelphone and Poulenc's The Human Voice
October 6 & 7 at 8pm
The Square Room
4 Market Square, Knoxville
Tickets
$ 25 online
$35 at the door

"The Telephone"
Ben, bearing a gift, comes to visit Lucy at her apartment; he wants to propose to her before he leaves on a trip. Despite his attempts to get her attention for sufficient time to ask his question, Lucy is occupied with interminable conversations on the telephone. Not wanting to miss his train, Ben leaves without asking Lucy for her hand in marriage. But Ben makes one last attempt: He calls Lucy from a telephone booth outside on the street and makes his proposal. She consents, and the two join in a romantic duet over the phone line, at the end of which Lucy makes sure that Ben remembers her phone number.
"The Human Voice" is based on Cocteau's play La voix Humaine. The one-act play involves a single character in a single room with a telephone. The character—an anonymous woman referred to only as "Elle" ("she" in French)—has been abandoned by her lover and reveals that she has attempted to commit suicide. The play consists of her last conversation with her lover.