La voix humaine (The Human Voice), is an opera that follows one side of a harsh phone call between two current lovers of five years. At the beginning of the piece we meet “Elle” waiting for the phone to ring, something that should have happened days ago. When it finally does, she attempts to reason with her lover. As Elle paces around her apartment, the conversation becomes more desperate with each turn. M.O.I. plans to highlight this journey through an added immersive element which will leave the audience with Elle at the end of the call, knotted in an emotional web incapable of escaping.
M.O.I. was drawn to perform La voix humaine now to explore the modern social trend of how, in the digital age, we turn to self-isolation as a form of protection / holistic practice.
Starring soprano Jamila Drecker-Waxman, La voix humaine will be presented at the Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research the first week of January, 2026.
This performance marks the inaugural production of Modernized Opera Initiative (M.O.I., pronounced mwah), a collective of early career artists seeking to recontextualize and reinvigorate the opera canon. Director Kira Weaver reflects, “Until this past June, La voix humaine was just an idea I kept to myself, a secret project I would think about working on when I finally had the agency to do so. Recently, I had the realization that I already have that agency.”
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