Gian Carlo Menotti’s comic opera “The Telephone” (L’amour a Trois), first performed in 1947, hilariously predicts the increasing role of technology in modern love. Ben visits Lucy at her apartment on a mission to propose to her before he departs on a trip. His attempts to pop the question are foiled by Lucy’s obsession with talking on her telephone. He tries everything to get her attention for long enough to ask for her hand in marriage, including an attempt to sever the phone line, until he decides to beat the telephone at its own game.