L'uomo dal fiore in bocca

Ten years ago Luc Brewaeys passed away, without a doubt the most important Belgian composer of recent decades. In the double bill L'uomo dal fiore in bocca (Luc Brewaeys) / La Voix humaine (Francis Poulenc), the depth and banality of life enter into an impossible dialogue with each other. In Brewaeys' opera 'the man with the flower' suffers from a cancerous tumour in the mouth. He knows that his days are numbered. In stark contrast to this is his conversation partner, 'the customer', who has missed his train and is completely preoccupied with everyday worries. Poulenc's 'tragédie lyrique' shows us a woman who desperately calls her ex-lover. The telephone line is not only disrupted, the content is also nothing but noise. 'The man with the flower' and the lonely woman are teetering on the edge of the abyss. In the absence of a real sounding board, they are entangled in an existential monologue. With an impeccable dramatic sense and an exquisitely refined sound language, Luc Brewaeys and Francis Poulenc bring them to life.