The Voice

The Voice revolves around a young man, named Enrico, who wants to be an opera star. Enrico’s voice is not good enough and he is struggling for recognition. He lives alone with his pet – a playful Poodle.
 
One day, after another unsuccessful audition they both go for a walk and a mysterious golden feather flies into Enrico’s mouth. His mediocre voice transforms into the most magical tenor of all time. Enrico immediately achieves huge success on the opera stage. Obsessed by his new image and fortune, he neglects his old friend – the Poodle.
 
One night after a performance in the Opera house, Enrico is asleep. Having a mind of his own, the golden feather flies out of Enrico’s mouth and gets into the Poodle's. Now the Poodle is singing opera arias. Enrico tries to get his voice back, but that seems to be impossible. His attempts become more and more brutal and eventually Enrico takes the ultimate decision – to kill the dog. Ironically, the feather has left the Poodle earlier on.

Director’s statement
Although the script has all the features of a tragedy, our intentions are to bring a comical tone to the story. We believe this is possible through combining the dimensions of a famous opera aria with the domestic life of an ordinary guy with his pet Poodle, while giving them the chance to sing. The characters will sing rather than talk. We will use the famous aria “Nessun Dorma / None Shall Sleep” from Puccini’s opera Turandot.

Taking the aria out of its recognisable context and placing the opera singing in a completely new place is a great way to deliver laughter. Not to mention the Poodle singing while taking a leak.

So far we have directed several shorts that deal with serious subjects. With The Voice we want to further explore and develop our storytelling techniques. The Opera is a classical art form and we envision the images in expressive, artistic animation style.
With The Voice we aim to make an entertaining tragicomedy, spiced up with opera singing.