On Tuesday, at Salle Pierre-Mercure, Alain Trudel will conduct the Orchester Classique de Montréal in the premiere of a chamber opera by Canadian-Haitian composer David Bontemps. The Torchinspired by the play by Haitian poet and playwright Faubert Bolivar, will be presented as part of Black History Month in Montreal.
Pianist Célimène Daudet, in presenting us with his remarkable disc Haiti my love in April 2021, had praised the great merits of David Bontemps, met at 1er piano festival in Haiti in 2017, to which she attributed her discovery of the Haitian composer Ludovic Lamothe and, one thing leading to another, the genesis of her discoveries and her musical project: “David Bontemps played a piece by Ludovic Lamothe. It is thanks to him that I discovered this music. He himself knew her thanks to his teacher in Port-au-Prince when he was little. I found it wonderful and David Bontemps put me in touch with the Society for Research and Dissemination of Haitian Music of musicologist Claude Dauphin in Montreal. Mr. Dauphin then sent me scores allowing me to structure a program to discover this music totally unknown in Europe. »
The testimony of the Franco-Haitian pianist is important. This filiation between David Bontemps, the fathers of Haitian music and musicological research embodied here by Claude Dauphin shows to what extent Montreal is the nerve center of knowledge of Haitian music and, henceforth, of unexpected creations.
Background
We are indeed surprised to see the lyrical form associated with Haitian heritage. Asked by The duty, David Bontemps, composer, musician involved in the jazz scene, but who essentially earns his living as a piano teacher in Montreal, where he has lived since 2002, willingly immerses himself in the history of his country of origin. “During the colonial era, we prioritized the plays that were performed in France. Under the Haitian period, in the XXe century, there was a half-Haitian, half-German composer, Werner Jaegerhuber, who left two operas, Naissainitiatory opera, and The Governor of the Dew, of which, alas, we have not yet found the score. I had the pleasure of recording, in 2008, the cycle of 24 melodies Voodoo offerings by Jaegerhuber with Chantal Lavigne, to which my opera is dedicated. There has since been only one other opera to my knowledge, that of Iphares Blain, Mariaj Lenglensou, in 2006. Three in all. »
The subject of this “opus 4” came very naturally to David Bontemps. “Faubert Bolivar and I were comrades at the Faculty of Law in Port-au-Prince. And even if he made his life in Martinique and I in Montreal, we stayed in touch. Every time he posts something, he sends it to me, and vice versa. In 2013, he received the “special prize Paulette Poujol-Oriol and Georges Corvington from Éditions Henri Deschamps” for his play The Torch. When I read it, I immediately said to myself that I had to make an opera out of it, because it is a very strong piece with a very beautiful plot with various threads. But from 2014 to 2020, I never had time to write anything. »
Then came the time to tackle this work which denounces corruption, misogyny and abuse of power. “In 2020, to disconnect from the sad atmosphere of the moment, I composed the opera in five weeks. » This opera, David Bontemps wanted it as « a closed door of a suffocating atmosphere ».
Ropes and maracas
The alliance with the Orchester Classique de Montréal came about naturally: “My meeting with Boris Brott and Taras Kulish was the result of chance. My last dinner before confinement was with a friend who put me in touch with the director of the Orchester Classique de Montréal. So when the opera was completed, Taras Kulish immediately received the score, which he passed on to Boris. Both were enthusiastic about this project. We understand them, especially since the orchestration is tailor-made for their orchestra: strings, with a simple addition of maracas.
After 20 years spent in Montreal, particularly in the jazz world, one wonders what style David Bontemps would adopt for his opera and what his role in returning to his roots would be. “I tried to use some Haitian rhythms, from the voodoo tradition in fact, as certain peoples have been able to preserve them through this tradition. I adapted them for the strings. But what counts for me is the clarity of the melody, so that we really understand what the protagonists are saying. Harmonically it’s a tonal and modal mix, but it’s approachable and melodious. There are arias and recitatives, and the latter must translate the suffocating side of the camera. »
The opera features a character who has to make a speech, his wife, their servant and a judge. “In Faubert Bolivar’s play, there are no names. It’s really Mr., Mrs., Miss and the Man. Monsieur (a tenor) is the narcissistic intellectual who has political ambitions and is preparing a speech. His wife, with whom he is a dysfunctional couple, seems mentally deranged. She’s a mezzo-soprano. Mademoiselle is a soprano and the Man, who appears in the fifth tableau, is a bass-baritone. »
A priori, one could think that the disturbing element, that is to say Mademoiselle, will integrate the most distinctive musical elements. “You could say that Mademoiselle is a headliner, but all the protagonists have main roles; Monsieur too, especially Monsieur. And Madame et l’Homme are not at all outdone,” says David Bontemps, who had carte blanche from Faubert Bolivar to write the libretto. “Opera is in tableaux. I cut out a painting to sum it up in an aria and a lot of monologues (the piece has long monologues) were picked up so that it would be more conducive to singing. But once the first painting was done, it was self-evident. I sent my work to Faubert Bolivar as I went along. He liked it very much. »
The Torcha chamber opera in seven scenes, will be premiered on Tuesday at the Salle Pierre-Mercure by Cameroonian-born soprano Suzanne Taffot, Canadian mezzo-soprano Catherine Daniel, Canadian-Jamaican tenor Paul Williamson and American bass-baritone Brandon Coleman , directed by Montrealer Mariah Inger and directed by Alain Trudel.
As for The beauty of the world, The Torch benefited in some way from the particular conditions and delays linked to the pandemic since a “creation workshop” took place in the fall of 2021 with Boris Brott and three of the singers of the cast, which allowed a work of assimilation of the new work well in advance of its creation. This will also serve Atma Classique, which will set up its microphones for a discographic project.
A week of creations