Jean Cocteau News

On the heels of a successful opening weekend and rave reviews for live productions of Rossini's Otello and Toshio Hosokawa's The Raven, Opera Philadelphia's Festival O continues this week with the first Opera on Film series, featuring more than 30 cinematic operas presented in 12 screenings at the Philadelphia Film Center.

Merrimack Repertory Theatre (MRT) will open its 43rd Season with the hilarious whodunit, The 39 Steps – a mix of Alfred Hitchcock's juicy spy flick with a dash of vintage Monty Python – from September 14 to October 2, according to Nancy L. Donahue Artistic Director Courtney Sale and Executive Director Bonnie J. Butkas. 

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center invites audiences to join them TODAY, Friday April 8 at 6 pm, for a NY LIVE evening at Villa Albertine | Cultural Services of the French Embassy + HowlRound zoom celebrating the Segal Center’s latest publication Bernard-Marie Koltès: Seven Plays; edited and with an introduction by scholar and translator Amin Erfani (Lehman College, CUNY)​. Free and open to the public; first come, first served.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center invites audiences on Friday, April 8 at 6pm, for a NY LIVE evening at Villa Albertine | Cultural Services of the French Embassy + HowlRound zoom celebrating the Segal Center’s latest publication Bernard-Marie Koltès: Seven Plays; edited and with an introduction by scholar and translator Amin Erfani (Lehman College, CUNY)​. Free and open to the public; first come, first served.

The Global Theater Initiative (GTI), a partnership between Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics (The Lab) at Georgetown University, invites all theatres, individual artists, institutions, and audiences to celebrate the 61st annual World Theatre Day on March 27, 2022.

Read all the reviews and see what the critics had to say about two-time Olivier Award-winner Ruth Wilson starring in The Human Voice - the searing story of a woman's heartbreak over the course of a final phone call with her former lover.

After two years of on and off isolation, connected to fellow humans by electronic devices alone, it is perhaps inevitable that Ivo van Hove has brought his adaptation of Jean Cocteau’s The Human Voice to the West End. This solo show focuses on a woman (played by Ruth Wilson) having one final phone conversation with her lover before he leaves her to marry someone else, contemplating the entire concept of communication through this particular medium.

Special to the evening will be the San Francisco debut performance of critically acclaimed opera singer and finalist on NBC television’s hit show The Voice, countertenor John Holiday, in a spectacular musical program spanning opera to pop, including the artist’s heartfelt interpretation of Harold Arlen’s immortal “Over the Rainbow.” Kevin Korth will be Holiday’s musical collaborator.

We’ve never been more connected. We’ve never been more alone. Book tickets now for THE HUMAN VOICE

New York City-based indie-pop singer-songwriter, Aubrey Haddard, announces her second LP, Awake And Talking, available for pre-order now, via Beverly Martel Records. 'Just A Wall,' arrives as the first single from the forthcoming LP, one that sets the tone for what's in store. Watch the music video for the new track now!

This April, San Francisco Ballet will present three world premieres: Artistic Director & Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson's Harmony, Christopher Wheeldon's Finale Finale, and Dwight Rhoden's The Promised Land. Emerging from the twin pandemics of Covid-19 and the racial reckoning in the U.S., and celebrating the long career of Helgi Tomasson, these works continue SF Ballet's tradition of cultivating new works and perspectives.

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).