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.
The show had two distinct parts: Gilles' one-man show and
Daniel's "visit". To save time, I will not describe the first part,
but instead mention a "Le Devoir" article (in French) that does this well.
But let me
tell you about Daniel Lavoie.
From Daniel's soft and mischievous first steps on stage it became
clear that the visit will be relaxed and friendly: Daniel entered the backstage
while Gilles was in the middle of a song. As he was moving along the back of
the stage, Daniel made "silence! listen to the song!" signals to the public, then poured
himself something from a bottle on the table, then shared it with Gilles...
Now the thing about Daniel Lavoie is that like a gas, he
fills out any space completely. It looks like he knows this very well and being a considerate stage partner he tries to make himself
"smaller", by cranking up fully his "shyness" handle, a
trick that never takes anything away from Lavoie, but adjusts the focus slightly and makes his partners more comfortable.
And so Daniel and Gilles had a most charming conversation, both of
them sitting in the middle of the stage, talking a little bit about the past, a
little bit about poetry, and a little bit about the future plans. After
spending some time conversing with Gilles, Daniel moved to a piano (by the way,
what a beautiful relationship he has with that instrument!) and sang 6 songs
(showing the vocal power, expressiveness and range that seem to have no
boundaries), while continuing the conversation in between the songs, before joining
Gilles again, this time on the avance-scene for a final à capella rendition of Retour à nulle part.
The most remarkable element of the evening for me was
Daniel's choice of songs. None of the loud crowd-pleasing hits, but instead the
pieces that perhaps are the essence of Lavoie (if the essence could be reduced
to 6 songs!):
1. The three "Douze hommes" songs, Ce monde sans issue and Soir
tourmente/Le vieil Ossian (to a piano - I couldn't imagine that, but they
sounded perfect!, plus the already mentioned Retour à nulle part)
2. The essential "lavoiesque" song, in my opinion, Boule qui roule
3. His most timeless song, J'ai quitté mon
île
4. A glimpse into the current set of mind and a future
album, a dark and beautiful Une valse pour rien by Allain
Leprest (a huge bravo for Daniel, even if the song doesn't find its way into
the new album after all).
All in all, for me personally, through this choice of songs
and through his onstage behavior that evening Daniel came across as very
sincere and open, I even dare to say "masque-free". The small stage
and the self-selected public dedicated to poetry and things abstract obviously
encouraged that approach and allowed to do things that would not be practical
on a big stage in front of a general public.
The show we saw was very unusual, and it had a beautiful
vibe of being exclusive, almost private. A huge credit goes to Gilles Bélanger for conceiving and executing this series, not to mention writing the great songs that started it all! If I had to complain about anything, I
wish the piano wasn't tucked all the way in the left corner of the stage in
such way that Lavoie was forced to sit practically with his back to the
audience.
Bye-bye, "Douze hommes"?..
An almost-complete (minus the first few minutes) video of Daniel Lavoie in Prélude aux 12 hommes.
An extract from the video above: Daniel Lavoie performing Une valse pour rien by Allain Leprest.
Théâtre de Quat’Sous
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