Orange grove by Zad Moultaka on a libretto by Larry Tremblay was, in December 2020, the great project of 30 years of Chants Libres, an anniversary that fell in a pandemic year. The opera was finally premiered Tuesday evening at the Monument-National. Not wanting to sacrifice the entire project to the reduction of a video capture and webcast without an audience, Pauline Vaillancourt, director of Chants Libres, helped by director Manuel A. Codina, had previously, last January, imagined a clever stand-alone video product, a 40-minute “Prelude”, appetizer in the form of reading extracts from the book. This was enough then to tell us the strength of the subject and its treatment and to make us very curious about the creation of the complete opera.
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Larry Tremblay himself adapted his novel published in 2013 in which twins will face war, revenge and sacrifice. The prelude told us that Zad Moultaka’s opera, written for (and not against) the voice, was associated with an orchestra effectively coloring the psychological state of the protagonists.
The discovery of the entire work somewhat attenuates the positivity of this impression, because, on stage, over a period of 90 minutes, the recurrence of the writing processes ends up boring a little. There are good ideas, many moreover, such as these indistinct choral layers or, above all, in the orchestra, the treatment of percussions. What Zad Moultaka also does particularly well is the orchestral rendering of dramatic or psychological oppression, for example, when the mother understands that one of her two children will have to sacrifice himself in the spirit of revenge.
It is an understatement to say that the star of the show is the subject treated by Larry Tremblay, a veritable shower of hatred with calls for a vengeful God on a bruised land. As twins Aziz and Amed’s grandparents’ house was bombed in an orange grove, warlord Soulayed convinces Father Zahed to send one of the twins to blow himself up in retaliation. With Aziz suffering from an incurable disease, Zahed considers that it would be an offense to God to send him. He therefore points to Amed. But Aziz, who is aware of his condition, convinces Amed to let him go instead. Years later we find Amed in the United States (the child was driven from his land and taken in by his aunt) torn by ghosts and remorse, but finding the path to peace.
Unlike many operas, Orange grove therefore benefits from its subject which appeals to us, both for its action and for the progress of the character of Amed. We are a little afraid, at the beginning, in the story of the bombing, that the literary treatment will be trivial, but things align well thereafter. On the other hand, the central question: “Why are things sung and how are they sung?” »Finds a rather unequivocal answer; a kind of Sprechgesang monotone which rises at the end of the sentence. Interesting chapter: when Amed finds himself in the United States, he speaks, but when he remembers his past he gradually resumes singing. It’s a bit strange as an effect, but well seen.
Among the protagonists Nicholas Burns in Amed, Dion Mazerolle in disturbing Soulayed, Nathalie Paulin in Tamara (the mother) and Stéphanie Pothier in Dalimah (the aunt) dominate the stage. Rich work of percussion and brass in the orchestra, in a show of sustained interest started very late (around 8:25 pm) due to a sluggish control of health passports. It is true that some members of the public who present giant QR codes printed on crumpled papers while crossing their arms and thinking that such tea towels are susceptible to being scanned do not facilitate the fluidity of access to the rooms. In this case, the line in the street was well over 100 meters.