The Cape Baroque Orchestra, in South Africa, is the surprise guest of honor of the Montreal Baroque festival, which opens Thursday, will be held until Sunday evening and is intended to be “a tribute to Montreal’s diversity: diversity cultural, gender and sexual, ages and artistic disciplines.”
Vincent Lauzer, artistic co-director of Montréal Baroque, insists that with Matthias Maute, he is committed to preserving the legacy of Susie Napper, the festival’s founder. The “Parallel Universes” edition allows the local baroque music community “to work in June and meet important people in the world of early music or other circles.”
Baroque, in the distance
The 2024 edition is therefore based “on encounters”, encounters “between cultures, between artistic trends and territories”. Vincent Lauzer is delighted, during his interview with The duty, that these meetings “are not limited to the guests coming to present what they do”. “They are involved in direct exchanges with local musicians. We invite them in particular to collaborate with emerging musicians so that there is a sharing of expertise and inspiration. »
Who would have thought there was baroque music in South Africa? And above all, decisive enough to be exported to the baroque stronghold of North America? The arrival of this Cape Town Baroque Orchestra, led by harpsichordist Erik Dippenaar, who will open the festival on Thursday, with Nigra Sum, the Ensemble ClassiqueInclusif (Ensemble Caprice) and singer Lynelle Kenned, is the work of Matthias Maute: “This are musicians with whom Matthias has worked, mainly in South Africa. He went there, he found out everything that was going on. I myself was surprised that Matthias had such an important activity there, with his colleagues from the Ensemble Caprice,” Vincent Lauzer tells us.
The musician is delighted to join OktoEcho for Andalusian music: “This music is from the same era, but from a different tradition. Such an exchange benefits everyone. I am also thinking of the Infusion Baroque concert, with the collaboration of musicians from Persian and Indian traditions, or of Ziya Tabassian, who suggested that we bring the Mexican trio Al Golpe del Guatimé, promoter of music from the region of Veracruz which has its origins in the 18th centurye century. These cultural encounters will benefit the musicians and the public, who will discover all the colors. »
Communities
“We are going to explore other diversities, with combinations of other art forms, for example in the final concert, Mysterious barricadeswhere we collaborate once again with Les jardin chorégraphiques, who work miracles with our means, or that of Les Boréades, who will explore tales from the 16the and XVIIIe centuries on the creation of instruments. We also have a Flute Concert! which uses dance with contemporary music,” adds Vincent Lauzer.
“On Saturday, we are trying to address this LGBTQ+ community, which is very present and active in our community,” rejoices the artistic co-director of Montréal baroque. The concert Operative fluidity by Arion Baroque Orchestra, with contralto Rose Naggar-Tremblay and countertenor Ian Sabourin, in a production by Thomas Ayouti, will explore, through the lyrical work of Handel, the roles written at the time for castrati and which can be sung by female voices or by countertenors. “Thomas Ayouti, a young queer director, will put this into context. He went to collect testimonies from people in the LGBTQ+ community to see how they reacted to the themes addressed in Handel’s arias. This will put all of this in a slightly more current context,” Vincent Lauzer tells us.
The evening will end at the L’Orbite café with Gabriel Dharmoo, well known on the contemporary scene, but appearing as a drag musician named Bijuriya, for, the description tells us, “a crazy evening mixing British and French baroque tunes, traditional Trinidadian and South Asian songs and popular songs belonging to Bollywood and queer culture.”
“I am very excited by this type of project,” Vincent Lauzer tells us. For Matthias and for me, it is a program full of unforeseen events; we will witness daring and very surprising original creations. »