Prélude aux 12 hommes (Théâtre de Quat’Sous, Montreal, November 9, 2015) : Gilles Bélanger and special guest Daniel Lavoie

In tiny and totally charming Montreal's Théâtre de Quat’Sous (a perfect venue for an intimate show) Gilles Bélanger, the composer behind the legendary "Douze hommes rapaillés" project, invites one of the 12 "hommes" (participants of that project) every evening over the course of two weeks this November for a conversation about the "Douze hommes", music, songwriting and personal paths in the music business. I saw the show on November 9 when Daniel Lavoie visited the stage.

Hommage à Piaf (Piaf a 100 ans...Vive la Môme!) : Victoriaville, November 11.

Photo source: http://spectramusique.com/artistes/spectacles.aspx?idA=89

The Piaf a 100 ans show is truly enjoyable, incredibly satisfying without being cheesy (I admit I was a little bit apprehensive before going to see it). What a great idea it was not to have an actual Piaf character, which would be a fail whichever way you might attempt to do this. Instead there were bits of Piaf in all characters on stage, as well as - eventually - in every audience member, which in my mind is the best kind of tribute to her.

Daniel Lavoie sings Gaston Miron : a note from the audence

A photo from Douze hommes rapaillés, most likely taken in the Parc de la Francophonie in Quebec City on July 11, 2011. The original source of the photo is unknown. Immediate source: http://www.daniellavoie.ru/dl/index.php/en/creativework/concerts/440--2011

A few years ago  I had a chance to see one of a handful of live performances of the legendary Douze hommes rapaillés, the one that took place in in the Parc de la Francophonie in Quebec City on July 11, 2011. (For the details, see my earlier post). The 12 extraordinary French-Canadian singer/songwriters/poets/political activists and just plain handsome men were creating an enormous energy on that open air stage and beyond. But this post is about Daniel Lavoie.

Douze hommes rapaillés : an outsider's view. (Quebec City, July 11, 2011 Festival d'été de Québec)

Photo credit: Agence Spectra

One goes to a lot of shows during lifetime, but some stay in memory in every detail, years later, as if you saw them yesterday. Douze hommes rapaillés at the Québec City Summer Festival in 2011 became one of those shows for me, although, curiously enough I was by no means the target audience for it (not being French-Canadian).  

Particulités / Daniel Lavoie (Les Éditions des Plaines, 2015)

Je ne lis pas les poètes, j’écoute le ciel

(Daniel Lavoie, Particulités)

As bizarre as it might seem to review a book of French language poetry in English, I will do exactly that, although it is very difficult to find an English equivalent even for the book's main tonality, la tristesse. Not quite sadness, but rather a dark tint, a beautiful melancholy. Forget everything you know about Daniel Lavoie the entertainer, with his trademark sunny smile. The narrator of Particulités is disillusioned and detached as he dissects the Universe’s mechanics, awe-inspiring and mysterious, the work of a great higher consciousness. When the narrator then descends back to Earth he observes it almost as a stranger, who despite all the vain and cruel ways of humanity, through the mundane details of everyday life senses a higher light seeking transcendence through people, nature and art (“Je sais qu’un dieu séculier cherche, à travers moi, les mots pour me dire qu’il est là” - bulletin). 

Finutilité / Daniel Lavoie (Les Éditions des Plaines, 2011)

The easy charm of finutilité

If you have never heard Daniel Lavoie read in concert some of his poems/poetic essays before they became  Finutilité - you are in for a wonderful ride. And if you are the lucky one who has  - then you have probably already bought the book!

Finutilité easily charms the reader with the author's poetic vision, his ability to see and to connect images in a truly original way, his honesty and his unique poetic intonation.

La licorne captive live at Festival Classica, May 29 2015, Saint-Lambert (Quebec)

 

Daniel Lavoie sings La Licorne Captive, Festival Classica, St-Lambert, May 29 2015

La licorne captive at the Festival Classica in St-Lambert on May 29 was an event as beautiful as it was rare. After all that was indeed the only chance to date to see this show in North America (the Europeans had already had several opportunities to see it in France). I've been under the spell of the original album (Le chant du monde, 2014) for over a year now (here is why), and finally the fortune smiled on me, so last Friday I found myself inside a very full house in the Catholic Church of St-Lambert, located on one of the quiet streets of this nice suburb of Montreal. Voilà, La licorne captive in Quebec.

Needles and Opium / Robert Lepage - Ex Machina

First things first : the production is stunning, and the word “production” is important here. The technology does get in the way of perception at times, but I am still giving Lepage tons of credit for audacity and vision and for the poignant sense of loneliness that every one of his plays transmits. Way to go and it’s my goal to see more of his works.