Nelligan : le chant du poète naufragé / André Gagnon-Michel Tremblay, March 2020

© Marc Hervieux / Nelligan / Jean-François Gratton, Shoot Studio / compagnie et cie 

Something wonderful happened this winter in Montreal’s Théâtre du Nouveau Monde : a brand new production of Nelligan. This version of an acclaimed opéra romantique by André Gagnon (music) and Michel Tremblay (libretto) directed by Normand Chouinard has a subtitle: Le chant du poète naufragé (The Song of a shipwrecked poet). After a triumphant run in Montreal the opera went on a tour of the province. I saw the show in Drummondville’s Maison des arts Desjardins, having travelled 300 miles and crossed a country border for that. Here is why.

La route d'Altamont / Gabrielle Roy

La route d’Altamont is one of those quiet but profound books. It is fashioned as a book of memories, but it is a philosophical work centered around a theme dear to Roy’s nomadic heart: journey. Every character in this four-story cycle has le mal du départ.

La montagne secrète / Gabrielle Roy

***spoiler alert***
La montagne secrète by Gabrielle Roy is beautiful book about the nature of art and the essence of creativity. The choice of protagonist helps to deliver the message with the most clarity: he is a Canadian trapper by occupation and an artist by calling (which he is the last person to recognize). Pierre Cadorai (a meaningful surname!) is a no more a conventional artist than he is a hunter, but nevertheless he is a true and pure artist consumed completely by Art, that liberating and unforgiving force.

Notre-Dame de Paris in Sherbrooke (QC), October 2018 (English)

One may try to resist the charms of Notre-Dame de Paris, but when the musical is approaching a geographically acceptable point, the invisible bugle calls, and time, money and even perhaps company come out of nowhere, and all of a sudden here you are sitting in the audience and your face is blue with the gleam from the stage light, and the show is about to begin ...

"Нотр-Дам де Пари" в Шербруке (Канада), октябрь 2018 (по-русски)

Можно сколько угодно сопротивляться чарам «Нотр-Дам де Пари», но когда мюзикл приближается в географически приемлемую точку, невидимая труба зовет, и находится время, деньги и даже, возможно, компания, и неожиданно для себя ты уже сидишь в зрительном зале и на лице твоем лежит синяя тень от сценического света, и спектакль вот-вот начнётся...

La Fête Nationale du Québec on the Plains of Abraham (June 23, 2018) : a foreigner's experience

If you ever find yourself in Quebec city on June 23 in the evening, do what the locals do: go see the free open air show in the city’s Plains of Abraham park on the high shore of the Saint-Lawrence river, because it’s the national holiday and the show is grand.

J’écoute la radio : notes on Daniel Lavoie's concert tour (2012-2014)

©Spectra Musique

 

To see a big picture one needs to step away from it. In order to understand the role a concert tour played in a performer’s carrier one needs to wait a couple of years after the tour’s ended. So, what exactly was the J’écoute la radio tour? Now, 3.5 years later is the best time to answer the question.

La fille de l'Ouest / Louise Dubuc (Montréal : Leméac, 2006)

 

La fille de l'Ouest takes the reader by the hand and transplants him/her right in the middle of the Quebec countryside. Yes, Louise Dubuc is obviously in love with Nature and understands it deeply. She knows how plants grow and how animals live, how food and love are made, how farms are run, how rivers get flooded, how the seasons bring change to Quebec's fields and forests and she writes about all this beautifully.