There was something different in the air on Saturday night at Place des Arts. A kind of feverishness, mixed with gratitude, that this form of fragile beauty, which can only exist in a theater, regains its rights. She will admit it from the outset: Ariane Moffatt needs us, that’s all. That’s good: we need Ariane Moffatt. It’s like that.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
Although it dates from 2015, Upright is one of those songs that the pandemic from which we are still recovering will have made it resonate in an unprecedented way. “There’s something different in the air / It’s unnatural when you disappear for too long / It lacks meaning, I’m losing my chance / My heart is missing / When what I see / You don’t you’re not here to share it with me”, proclaims Ariane Moffatt in this hymn to the beauty of loving and friendly communion, which she offered at the start of the show to all the hearts in need gathered in the glowing comfort of the Théâtre Maisonneuve.
And they were from all layers of our little world, of all ages, to have come to live with her this moment of sharing. Elegant grannies in satiny costumes, little girls in shorts with mum and dad trailing behind, chums of girls on the sparkling wine, young couples with eyes gaga of love; Ariane Moffatt, 20 years after the release of her first album Aquanautis one that transcends generations, the Tintin of our song.
Inspired by his seventh album, incarnatereleased in March 2021, the singing tour she presented on this scintillating summer evening marked – surprisingly – her baptism of Place des Arts.
In front of her parents, her in-laws, her three sons, her girlfriend and an audience that didn’t wait to be asked to be heard, the musician sat down behind a grand piano, with her alongside the string quartet of Mommies on the Run, accompanied for the occasion by six other comrades, under the direction of Mélanie Bélair. Ten musicians in all, you’ll understand, if you’re not too rotten in math.
PHOTO CATHERINE LEFEBVRE, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Ariane Moffatt
After Uprightthe one her friends call Ari will have given pride of place to the repertoire ofincarnate – 10 of the 12 tracks on the album were played – both loading up the ivories and throwing loops (which sometimes buried the strings, it’s sad). “In the name of beauty / For a little truth”, she repeated in Beauty, the manifest song of this creative cycle exploring the fiber of filial ties on hypnotic music, cousins of the neoclassical. And the truth is that we let ourselves be lulled willingly.
Very soflty
Light. Kindness. Love. The evening will unfold from the first to the last note under the sign of a gentle and cautious euphoria. A euphoria full of this vulnerability that is ours since we have to relearn the joy of finding ourselves all together in the same place, to open our hearts in unison.
Invited to join her on stage to play the role of Lou Doillon in Never too lateÉtienne Coppée (or Étienne Copain, as Ariane nicknamed him) had his eyes full of sparklers.
“We will cry together tears of joy”, sang a little earlier the young and shaggy songwriter, a sort of Serge Fiori who would have signed with Motown, during his touching and pretty awkward first part, which obviously made many converts – his outdoor show next Saturday is already on our calendar. Will we cry tears of joy together? About an hour later, during their duet, that was it: Coppée’s prediction came true.
Turning to the repertoire of his albums All the senses (2008) and MY (2012) at the end of the concert, Ariane Moffatt took over the dance floor at the same time, swapping her piano for keyboards and sequencers, the time for a fruitful synthesis between electro textures and strings, which was also coupled with a synthesis of the rainbow of colors that his work contains, of such richness that no one will blame him for having left aside several of his classics, a luxury that abundance allows.
“You are part of my reasons for loving life”, she proclaimed while singing her success Miami, dedicated just before the recall to her friend Karim Ouellet – she will also be part of the vigil homage to the late singer this Sunday on the Place des Festivals. In an hour of caressing songs like the forest of pink feathers that stood behind her, Ariane Moffatt will have reminded us that music is not the least of the reasons to love life.