Barbara Hannigan invites you to a concert evening of a special kind with her spectacular acting identification as soprano and conductor at the same time. After her sensational Ludwigsburg debut in 2021, the Canadian artist returns to the Festival with a captivating production of Francis Poulenc's lyrical tragedy »La Voix Humaine«. Her expressive facial expressions can be followed in real-time on a screen at the back of the stage, while the boundaries between acting and reality become increasingly blurred. 

Poulenc's one-act mono-opera gets under your skin. Only the answers of the protagonist on the phone can be heard, accompanied by the orchestra. Barely noticeable, the rest of the conversation completes itself as if on its own through imagination and empathy. The audience experiences every nuance of the newly abandoned woman that remains hidden from the invisible and inaudible man on the other side of the line. Alienated by the medium of the telephone, the nameless woman vacillates between emotional masking and reverie and thus enters a spiral of deep sorrow. 

A transformation of a special kind occurs at the beginning of the concert: In the »Metamorphoses« by Richard Strauss, 23 solo strings perform a constant motivic transformation. A quotation from Ludwig van Beethoven's "Funeral March" runs through the half-hour work like a distant memory and only reveals itself at the end. Strauss wrote this fervent lament in 1945 given the bombed-out cities of Munich, Dresden, Berlin, and Vienna. Barbara Hannigan develops the melancholy »Metamorphoses« and Poulenc's mono-opera in a week-long rehearsal phase together with the Festival Orchestra and creates a performance that goes far beyond a conventional concert experience and leaves the audience transformed.

Visiting for the first time? For this event, there is an accompanying workshop for festival guests in training. More info here.

Since there are two big events in Ludwigsburg this weekend, there will be an increased volume of traffic. In addition, Wilhelmstraße will be closed. We are recommending to arrive by public transport, on foot or by bike. You can find more information about arriving by public transport here.

Production image © Raphael Brand