POULENC: “La Voix Humaine.” Julia Migenes, soprano;...

POULENC: “La Voix Humaine.” Julia Migenes, soprano; Orchestre National de France, conducted by Georges Pretre. Erato 2292-456651-2. Migenes proves an extraordinarily compelling successor to the legendary Denise Duval in Francis Poulenc’s 1960 operatic monodrama, based on Jean Cocteau’s one-way, 45-minute 1932 telephone conversation (the recording is the soundtrack of a French TV film). Verbal lucidity remains paramount here, and Migenes’ varied moods, from rueful to hysterical, lend histrionic depth to Poulenc’s desperate protagonist, confronting the breakup of an affair. Pretre supplies a sympathetic accompaniment to these melodramatics.