Overture and Beginners 1899–1918

This chapter introduces Francis Poulenc's parents. It begins with Poulenc's mother, Jenny Zoé Royer, who was born on 20 June 1864 and played a large part in his musical life. Jenny gave Poulenc his first lessons on the piano in 1904 and then appeared first in the list of dedicatees for his opera Dialogues des Carmélites. The chapter then talks about Émile Poulenc, Poulenc's father who was born on 5 July 1855 and took over the family chemical firm under the name “Poulenc Frères.” It describes how the chemical firm flourished throughout Poulenc's youth and beyond, bringing in a comfortable income for the family, and eventually morphed into the current enterprise Rhône–Poulenc. It also explains the contrast made between Poulenc's parents, between his mother's free–thinking, agnostic family and the committed Roman Catholic one of his father's.

Mots cachés: Autobiography in Cocteau's and Poulenc's La Voix humaine

Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites has been consistently identified as the summit of his operatic works. Such an assessment has assured that his final opera, La Voix humaine, based on Cocteau's monodrama, has been overlooked, the impetus for its composition inadequately defined. Musically, La Voix humaine employs a complex tonal language unprecedented in Poulenc's compositional arsenal. Rather than advancing the interpretation that Poulenc composed Voix out of loyalty to Cocteau, I propose that the opera represents his final attempt to come to terms with his homosexuality. Numerous references in correspondence expose the opera as a mirror of Poulenc's emotional life. Poulenc and Cocteau's employment of gay camp also informs the work and provides a glimpse into possible hidden meanings. A closer examination of this neglected work reveals new insights into Poulenc's troubled and elusive personality.