The presentation of Carmen, by Bizet, in concert version by the Philharmonic Orchestra and the Choir of Music Lovers, had very copiously filled the Maison symphonique on Saturday evening. No one, certainly, will have regretted such a remarkable and pleasant evening.
Who would have thought to see the emergence, while classical music is said to be losing momentum, of such interesting players in our musical life in recent years? The Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir of Musicians (OPCM) prides itself on being the “first symphony orchestra and choir founded in Montreal in 40 years [voué] to inspire a new generation of music lovers by presenting major vocal and symphonic works.” This definition clearly draws a parallel with the Orchester Métropolitain, but we must see broader and less exclusive.
An orchestra does not necessarily need a choir and, with the Agora Orchestra, Nicolas Ellis (Alpine Symphony by Strauss coming to this same room on June 12) launched his musical affairs just as well as Francis Choinière put his into orbit. We will add to this, obviously, Obiora, the diversity orchestra, but also the Montreal Classical Orchestra, whose project no longer has anything to do with what the McGill Chamber Orchestra was, moreover on the brink of the abyss at the moment of his salutary transfiguration.
Four new ensembles in ten years, redefining artistic proposals and bringing, each in its own way, as we saw in the room on Saturday, another audience. For a moribund discipline, that’s not bad. And as established institutions crust over or sink, as we saw last Thursday, it’s also quite necessary.
A seasoned Carmen
So, first point: opera in concert at the Maison symphonique is great. Hearing clearly the richness of the orchestral score, having singers speaking clearly and distinctly to us, it is a perfect pleasure. The most perilous work is for conductor Francis Choinière, who must carefully balance, even if the singers are behind him. Some orchestral phrases remain a little strong at times, but it’s not endemic at all.
The “staging” which makes the protagonists move and interact according to what is happening, rather than “reciting their score”, gives the “opera in concert” genre the vital minimum of dramatic readability allowing us to understand the action. So, if the distribution is good, the music lover has everything to gain from hearing an opera in such optimal conditions. What would we not give to truly discover all the harmonic riches and subtleties of The Boy Queen by Julien Bilodeau in these conditions?
The great interest was obviously to finally see here the flamboyant Canadian mezzo Wallis Giunta in Carmen, a role that she tackled for the first time in Leipzig during the 2018-2019 season and which she then sang in Frankfurt. Having tackled the role on stage, the singer with a mainly European career was very comfortable, for example in Act II in the bohemian dance. Giunta never overdoes it. Her sensuality comes from a sort of inescapable magnetism linked to a cold and assumed fatalism. Destiny hovered, thanks to her, from the first to the last minute.
Adam Luther has exactly the profile of the toy and the instrument of this fatality. Distributing Don José is a headache, but in this room and these circumstances, Luther even uses his limitations (he is not a stentor) to achieve, musically, very beautiful things (the wounded man in “L’air of the flower”). As we heard in the Requiem of Verdi, the mid-voice register is more of a trickle than a controlled register, but, coated dramatically, we get used to it. Myriam LeBlanc had already sung Micaëla in Quebec. The role suits him very well, and Hugo Laporte had a lot of fun playing Escamillo. Excellent companions, the concert version allowing us in particular to appreciate the advantage of having a Zuniga as impactful as Alain Coulombe. Great pleasure, too, to have people — excellent choir included — who sing French instead of jabbering things like at the Metropolitan Opera.
One of Francis Choinière’s feats is to never make us feel like we are in a “second rate” show: the orchestral and choral work is excellent, and we can only wish him to continue on this path. Moreover, his choice to return to the essence of comic opera, that is to say the alternation of arias and spoken dialogue (admittedly minimal), instead of recitatives, is entirely to his honor.