About this Event
November 3, 2026 at 7:30pm (Vancouver time)
The phone rings. She knows who it is, and she knows how this ends.
For five years she has loved a man who was never fully hers. Tonight he is calling to say goodbye. Alone with the line, and surrounded by the remnants of the life they shared, she pleads, deflects, jokes, and lies. She holds on as long as she can, struggling between the future she imagined and the one she now has to face by herself.
Francis Poulenc’s La Voix humaine is one of the most intense works in the operatic repertoire. It has one singer, one telephone, and a text by Jean Cocteau. We only ever hear her side of the conversation, and somehow that tells us everything. The silences hurt as much as the words.
This semi-staged recital brings the opera into an intimate space, close enough to catch every hesitation and every breath she can’t quite steady. Whether this is your first opera or your fiftieth, it’s a performance you won’t shake easily.
The production features artists from Vancouver Opera’s Yulanda M. Faris Young Artist Program, which develops the next generation of Canadian opera talent, and is part of VOICES, our series that takes opera off the mainstage and into closer, more personal encounters.
The Artists
Marianne Bertrand, mezzo-soprano (Elle)
Praised by Revue L’Opéra for her beautiful voice, musicality, and dramatic talent, Quebec mezzo-soprano Marianne Bertrand is a Young Artist in Vancouver Opera’s Yulanda M. Faris Young Artist Program. This season with Vancouver Opera she sings Elle (La Voix humaine), Berta (Il barbiere di Siviglia), and Flora (La traviata). Previous roles include Giovanna (Rigoletto) with Vancouver Opera, Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), and Zweite Dame (Die Zauberflöte).
Cecilia NguyenTran, piano
Cecilia NguyenTran is a Vietnamese-Canadian pianist from Toronto, now in her first year with Vancouver Opera’s Yulanda M. Faris Young Artist Program. Her recent work includes Opera York’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Così fan tutte, and Toronto Operetta Theatre’s A Night in Venice. With Opera McGill she worked on Cendrillon, Blond Eckbert, Dialogues des Carmélites, and The Light in the Piazza. She holds a Master of Music from McGill University and a Bachelor of Music and Opera Diploma from Wilfrid Laurier University.
Michal Aloni, stage director
Michal Aloni is a singer and stage director working across opera and interdisciplinary performance, and is currently stage director with Vancouver Opera’s Yulanda M. Faris Young Artist Program. As a singer she has recently worked with Opera 5, Chants Libres, People Watching Circus Collective, Cultureland Opera Collective, and the Canadian Opera Company Chorus. She completed a diploma in stage directing at McGill University, a portfolio artist internship with Opera 5, and an observership at the Royal Opera House (UK). Michal holds voice performance degrees from the University of Western Ontario and the Jerusalem Academy of Music.
Event venue & nearby stays
Vancouver Opera - Martha Lou Henley Rehearsal Hall, 1955 McLean Drive, Vancouver, Canada
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