Jean Cocteau News

London is never short of temptations, whether epic West End shows, engrossing dramas or bold fringe offerings. From a much talked-about adaptation to a provocative revival and a thorny Shakespeare play, here are some of this month’s most eye-catching openings. Don’t forget to check back for BroadwayWorld’s reviews, interviews and features!

Suzy Klein, the new head of BBC Arts and Classical Music TV, has announced a range of new and forthcoming highlights for audiences, including a major new commitment to performance with a new dedicated Sunday evening slot and more details on the landmark arts series Art That Made Us.

Four groups from Japan, Korea & Taiwan presented two epic evenings at Japan Society on January 14 & 15. From freestyle moves in the lobby to cinematic butoh, and from the use of humor & technology to make monotonous choreography thrilling to combining dance and physics through the journey of an electron, East Asian dance is innovative & inspiring.

Rovaris will marshal the company’s musical forces once again on Friday, Jan. 21 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 23, at 2:00 p.m., this time in the company’s concert debut in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center, for a program featuring Igor Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and George Walker’s Lilacs.

Ruth Wilson will star in Ivo van Hove’s adaptation of Jean Cocteau’s The Human Voice, which he also directs with design by Jan Versweyveld, originally produced by Internationaal Theater Amsterdam. The production opens at the Harold Pinter Theatre on 22 March, with previews from 17 March, and runs for three weeks only until 9 April.

Opera Parallèle's (OP) General and Artistic Director Nicole Paiement, today announced the 2021-22 season repertoire, casting and creative teams for the company's 12th anniversary.

In La Voix Humaine, soprano Patricia Racette is enthralling as she engages with each twist and turn of the score as though it is an emotional punch. She created this role in several cities and in each she has pulled the audience into the immediacy of Elle’s predicament. The 40-minute musical work gives the soprano a wide range for expression.

This bi-lingual presentation of Francis Poulenc and Jean Cocteau's one-act tragedy will be sung in French and spoken in English, combining the operatic monodrama with the original play.

Poulenc's one act opera, La Voix Humaine will be presented at the 2021 KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival (Tuesday, Sept. 14 - Saturday, Sept. 25) on Sunday, September 19 at 7:30PM at MuCCC (142 Atlantic Ave Rochester, NY 14607).

Poulenc's one act opera, La Voix Humaine will be presented at the 2021 KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival (Tuesday, Sept. 14 - Saturday, Sept. 25) on Sunday, September 19 at 7:30PM at MuCCC (142 Atlantic Ave Rochester, NY 14607).

On June 18, 2021, I watched Los Angeles Opera’s film of Stravinsky’s 1927 opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex. Jean Cocteau, who wrote the libretto, based it on the ancient Greek tragedy Sophocles wrote ca. 429 BCE. Right now LAO is featuring it online for free.

Los Angeles Opera’s presentation of Oedipus Rex by Igor Stravinsky is available online from June 17 to July 18, 2021. The libretto is by Jean Cocteau. The cast includes: Oedipus, Russell Thomas; Jocasta, J’nai Bridges; Creon, John Relyea; Tiresias, Morris Robinson; Narrator, Stephen Fry; Conductor, James Conlon.

Drawing inspiration from classic surreal, expressionist films by Ingmar Bergman and Jean Cocteau, Edward II will be live on Wednesday 9 June at 7pm BST, and available on catch-up thereafter. The Show Must Go Online's Month of Marlowe comes after the collective performed the entirety of William Shakespeare's First Folio in weekly livestreamed readings over 36 consecutive weeks last year. 

Alone on stage. Alone, alone and desperate. Alone forever. Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and that courageous soprano Patricia Racette bring us Francis Poulenc’s one-act opera LA VOIX HUMAINE. It’s a solo piece, a true tour de force for the singer. And Ms. Racette carries it off magnificently.

As part of this spotlight page, viewers will get exclusive access to concerts, never before seen clips and interviews within their “Your Pass to Pride 2021” Collection, produced by Human by Orientation throughout the month.

Long Beach Opera presents Philip Glass's Les Enfants Terribles, performing May 21, 22 and 23, 2021 at the 2nd and PCH rooftop garage at 2nd Street and Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach. 

Boston Ballet’s digital season will conclude with BB@yourhome: Process & Progress, an approximately one-hour long program featuring a collection of dance films by international choreographic and new-to-North America voices Ken Ossola and Nanine Linning, boundary-breaking choreographer Lex Ishimoto, and Boston Ballet Principal Dancer John Lam.

Long Beach Opera has announced a revised 2021 Season, which will include an exciting return to live opera performance in May with an immersive drive-in Phillip Glass opera, the company’s first venture into longform digital content with a world premiere operatic television series in June, and an outdoor live performance of two operas in August.

The Global Theater Initiative, a partnership between Theatre Communications Group and The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University, is inviting all theatres, individual artists, institutions, and audiences to celebrate the 60th annual World Theatre Day on March 27, 2021.

Join HUNCHtheatre on 27th March, World Theatre Day, for the premiere of a short video of Jean Cocteau's call to arms, with Masha Alekhina of Pussy Riot, currently under house arrest in Moscow, and other theatre makers and artists facing different  obstacles across the world.