Des Moines Metro Opera features intimate performance in 'The Human Voice'

The word for storytelling on a grand scale has always been operatic. 

The Des Moines Metro Opera's season will begin with a reminder that stories and operas can be intimate.

"The Human Voice" is a one-woman, one-act opera presented as part of the Des Moines Metro Opera's Second Stages series Jan. 31 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 2 at 2 p.m. in the Grand View University's Viking Theatre.

The opera is about the end of a relationship doomed by a lack of communication despite the couple being surrounded by devices designed to bring them together. "The Human Voice," with music by Francis Poulenc and lyrics by Jean Cocteau, premiered in Paris in 1959.

Des Moines Metro Opera general and artistic director Michael Egel said the updated story sung in English explores the universal desire people have to make an emotional connection.

"All you desire is that word, that call, that voice on the other end of the phone," Egel said. "And often we don't get the news we were yearning for."

The production is directed by Kristine McIntyre and will feature music director and principal conductor David Neely on piano and the voice and acting talents of Elise Quagliata. Egel said Quagliata is a Des Moines Metro Opera favorite who has starred previously in productions of "Dead Man Walking," "A Little Night Music" and "As One and Flight." Quagliata began as an apprentice with the Des Moines Metro Opera in 2004.

"She has a way of disappearing so sincerely into a role that it becomes almost as if it was written for her," Engel said.

Egel urges those interested in seeing "The Human Voice" to purchase tickets soon as he expects the Viking Theatre with fewer than 250 seats to sell out quickly.

Also upcoming for the Des Moines Metro Opera in February is Zachary James' one-man show "On Broadway!" presented Feb. 16 at 2 p.m. at Plymouth Church in Des Moines. James will be telling stories and singing numbers from his time in the Tony Award-winning revival of "South Pacific" at the Lincoln Center and his part as Lurch in the original cast of "The Addams Family" along with performing songs from "Oklahoma," "Sweeney Todd," "Les Miserables," "Pajama Game," "On the Town," "Phantom of the Opera," "Carousel," "The Fantasticks," "Camelot" and "Most Happy Fella."