New Quebec creation Saturday evening at the Montreal Opera with The Boy Queen of the Julien Bilodeau / Michel Marc Bouchard tandem. A well-crafted proposal, which excited the audience present at the Wilfrid-Pelletier room.
A lot has flowed under the bridge since the announcement in 2015 of a lyrical adaptation of the play Christine, the boy queen (2012) by Bouchard. The creation, which was initially scheduled to take place in Toronto during the 2019-2020 season, finally took place in Montreal, with the Queen City company remaining co-producer.
It is this situation (plus the pandemic) which allowed us to hear two operas by the Bilodeau-Bouchard duo in the space of around fifteen months, The beauty of the world having been created at the same place in November 2022. Michel Marc Bouchard, for his part, took his first steps at the Montreal Opera in 2016 with an adaptation of his famous Feluettes with the collaboration of Australian composer Keven March.
As in his two previous operas, access to culture in environments that are not favorable to it returns as a leitmotif. The sovereign wants to know everything, to know everything. It is for this reason that she brought the philosopher René Descartes to Sweden, who would die there a few months later.
As in the Feluettes also, it is the story of forbidden homosexual love. Queen Christine loves her lady-in-waiting, the flirtatious Countess Ebba Sparre. But reasons of state require her to marry. Bouchard explains the ins and outs of this to us without falling into an unequivocal condemnation of this era which could not be more patriarchal.
One of the highlights of the opera is the anatomy demonstration (Descartes removes a pineal gland from a corpse, the supposed seat of the soul), where chorus, soloists and sets evoke the splendor of the great romantic opera.
Otherwise, Angela Konrad’s dynamic staging and Anick La Bissonnière’s contrasting scenography (magnificent staircase in the first act, which could have been more exploited) illuminate the Bouchardian drama.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Director Angela Konrad in rehearsal, end of January
There are a few lengths, especially the somewhat moralizing ending, and some somewhat salty sexual evocations from the men (like “Open your legs and procreate” or “I’m going to fill you with me”). But the whole moves and impresses.
Julien Bilodeau’s music ideally molds itself to the drama, clashing and complex in the more dramatic passages (we think of the Second Viennese School or Hindemith), remarkably simple at other moments, like this aria by Christine (first act) accompanied by a carpet of triplets with low strings, magnificently velvety, but also in a remarkable economy of means (we think here of the American minimalists).
Some characters have a very marked musical treatment, like the jester Count Johan Oxenstierna of the tenor Isaiah Bell (clear, well-characterized voice), or the squeaky Marie-Éléonore of Brandenburg (the queen mother) of the coloratura soprano Aline Kutan (in great form). vocal), a sort of black widow with a sardonic laugh. Another singularity: the high-pitched, almost unreal singing of soprano Anne-Marie Beaudette, who appears at a few moments offstage as if to remind Christine of her destiny of freedom.
The title role is entrusted to Lebanese-Canadian soprano Joyce El-Khoury, completely in control despite the obvious difficulties of her score, often straining towards the high notes. The relative sourness of the tone, however, suits the roundness of hexagonal French less than the brilliance of Italian (she sang Madama Butterfly at the same place last May).
Otherwise, we have a luxury Count Karl Gustav (Christine’s suitor cousin) with the baritone Étienne Dupuis, about whom we cannot praise enough. Mezzo-soprano Pascale Spinney, a former member of the Atelier lyrique who is now making a career in the United States, moves as Countess Ebba Sparre, the queen’s beloved companion.
Tenor Eric Laporte (sensitive composition, but difficult high notes) and bass Alain Coulombe complete the cast in the shoes of Descartes and his assistant.
As for The beauty of the worldit was Jean-Marie Zeitouni who conducted the pit, this time with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
This Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m., at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier
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