Romantic Double Feature: La voix humaine and Burnt Toast

Opera Time!

On this Valentine’s Day 2026, what could be better than an evening at the opera entirely dedicated to love! We will present two works that could not be more different from one another. First, a major work of the 20th century: La voix humaine by Francis Poulenc, based on the play by Jean Cocteau, which plunges us into the incomprehension and then the profound anguish of a woman who has just been abandoned by her lover. A telephone soliloquy—strikingly realistic—of a woman who is incredulous and overwhelmed, set to music that is at once spontaneous, profound, and above all, deeply moving.

The second half of the evening takes us into a completely different world. Burnt Toast is a contemporary work by Canadian composer Alexina Louie, with a libretto by Dan Redican. An operatic pastiche created for CBC television, this opera—originally in eight scenes, to which Toothpaste (by the same composer) is appended—takes us, with biting humor, through the various stages of romantic relationships. From innocent first stirrings to murder over a toilet seat left up, and a breakup triggered by an open tube of toothpaste, love is presented in all its forms, with numerous nods to operatic classics.