Daniela Mazzuccato - Poulenc: La voix humaine, l'histoire de Babar (2019)

• This new recording presents two vocal works by Poulenc, showing two different sides of the composer: the deeply tragic La voix humaine and the comical L’histoire de Babar.

• La voix humaine is a one-act opera based on the play by Jean Cocteau, who worked closely together with the composer in preparation of the staging of the work. The libretto consists of a woman’s last phone

conversation with her lover, who is in love with someone else. In the end she commits suicide.

• L’histoire de Babar was written in 1945 for narrator and piano, based on the delightful children’s stories of Babar, the little elephant, by Jean de Brunhoff.

• The soprano in La voix humaine is Daniela Mazzucato, one of Italy’s leading opera singers, having performed in all important opera houses of Italy (La Scala, Rome, Verona arena, San Carlo Naples) and at Covent Garden, Glyndebourne, Opera de Paris. The pianist in both works is Marco Scolastra, active as a soloist and avid chamber music player.