Songs of the pandemic at the Ahuntsic-Cartierville cultural center

The show Confined Journal of opera singing is probably the artistic performance that best illustrates the continued adaptation to the changing conditions of public health restrictions. It tells through the most famous lyrical arias everything we have been experiencing since the start of the pandemic.

Sponsored by the Opéra de Montréal, the concert will be webcast on October 25, World Opera Day. It will bring together three singers, an actress and a pianist on the stage of the Ahuntsic-Cartierville cultural center, while respecting physical distancing.

The narrative framework comes from a work by Pierre-Max Dubois, a French composer who created elastic opera. “It is made up of 12 variations that can be performed in the order you want and which also allows you to add all kinds of elements”, indicates the director, Nathalie Deschamps.

This teacher at Cégeps Marie-Victorin and Saint Laurent and who since 1995 has signed around sixty productions for the University of Montreal, the Opéra de Montréal, the Conservatoire de musique du Québec or for the Atelier lyrique de l The Opéra de Montréal has thus been able to use lyric song in the abundant repertoire to enhance this journal.

Referents

When we talk about the alcohol that was consumed a lot during the first wave, we hear extracts from la Traviata by Verdi. When it comes to the difficulties experienced by artists, the painting entitled “the tramp” is presented to the tunes of Mozart.

When you quote social media, she must have been creative. “We have one of the characters who’s a little bit older who took to Instagram and Facebook. This woman names them very badly. And while she sings Carmen, she films herself. She makes a live», Describes Ms. Deschamps.

There is also a variation on the cooking recipes people made during the lockdown. “We wanted to do it in a light tone because everything we are going through at the moment, it is not easy. We wanted to treat what we lived together with a touch of humor, ”notes the director.

All over

The show designed this summer was to be shown outdoors. Several excerpts were played at Place d’Youville in Old Montreal, on Saint-Denis or Sainte-Catherine streets. “We understood that we could not reopen the theaters,” agrees Ms. Deschamps.

When the theaters were reopened in September, she adapted Confined Journal indoors. However, this will be the first time the show has been presented in full on one stage.

The recording broadcast live should ensure optimal quality to reproduce the acting of the actors and the sounds of the song.

“What we wanted to do was to really highlight the resilience of everyone and to really give hope. We are no longer able to hear the “it’s going to be fine”, but somewhere, what we want to hear is “let’s stand together for a better day”, ”explains the designer.

The final touch-ups she will make before the broadcast should include elements to evoke what she calls the second confinement, the show being in constant adaptation.

Confined Journal, opera singing show, on October 25, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., webcast on the Facebook page of the Maison de la culture Ahuntsic-Cartierville. On stage, sopranos Elisabeth Gauthier and Catherine Saint-Arnaud, mezzo-soprano Rose Naggar Tremblay and tenor Pierre Heault, under the musical direction of pianist Julien Leblanc.