Ballet-Opéra-Pantomime (BOP) was created by a few friends in 2013 with the aim “to create multidisciplinary performances centered on works of classical and contemporary music, and presented in environments favoring the emotional immersion of the spectator”.
Their chiseled proposals have brought, at the rate of about one show per year, a breath of youth into the Montreal musical universe. The navegiven four evenings two months ago in the singular environment of Usine C, is no exception.
“I didn’t expect us to do a cover at all,” immediately admits director Cédric Delorme-Bouchard, who collaborated with BOP in 2019 for the show. The heart vesselat Bourgie Hall.
“It’s going to be very, very different from the performances at Usine C”, however warns the one who also signs the scenography and the lighting.
It must be said that the only scenic device of the creation, “a large circular arena with the scenography inside surrounded by four grand pianos”, to quote the artist, would alone occupy double the stage of the hall. Gilles-Lefebvre of Orford Music.
We take the essence of the show and make it a much more intimate version. We keep the music and the body to really get the essence of each moment of the soloists-dancers.
Cédric Delorme-Bouchard, director
The essence of the show is, as in The heart vesselthe music of Olivier Messiaen, arranged for four pianos by Hubert Tanguay-Labrosse, one of the kingpins of BOP.
Messiaen’s contribution
“My raw material is usually the text or the body, and the meeting with Messiaen had been a complete and total crush”, recalls Delorme-Bouchard.
“I continued in the meantime to immerse myself in this universe with his treatises on music, aesthetic approaches and the representation of colors – Messiaen was synesthetic [il associait naturellement certaines couleurs à des accords précis] –, but also his philosophical discourse on nature, plants and animals. »
The works of the French composer, taken from Twenty looks for the Child Jesus and Visions of the Amen (whose original versions are respectively for one and two pianists), rub shoulders with two creations by Alexis Raynault (one of the founders of BOP) and Sophie Dupuis.
“It might make some people smile, but I find that Messiaen’s music is very accessible,” confides the master builder.
This is music to listen to in real life, in person. It was a shock at Usine C – a highly positive shock! – this game of the four pianists who play without a score, a mo-nu-men-tal work, by the way.
Cedric Delorme-Bouchard
“The performance begins with series of solos by the dancers and eventually I work with the whole group. In the same way, for Messiaen, we start with the softest pieces, those that leave the most room for silence, and we progress towards complexity,” adds Cédric Delorme-Bouchard.
Messiaen, who was not only a believer, but also intensely mystical, does he still touch, in a world that is said to be disenchanted? “I see much more sacredness in musical representations than in many works or religious practices. There is something universal in his music that is completely beyond us. Ultimately, Messiaen talks about nature, plants, trees, animals… I have no problem talking about pagan rituals”, concludes the director.
July 16, 4:30 p.m., at Salle Gilles-Lefebvre
Other concerts of interest
The Orchester de la Francophonie in one piece
The Orchester de la Francophonie, which brings together dozens of young musicians from all over the world here every summer, had to withdraw to a “chamber music” format last year because of numerous visa problems. So it’s off again this summer with 71 musicians from 11 countries who will play under the direction of Jean-Philippe Tremblay, who founded this educational ensemble in 2001. We will hear them on July 12 (7:30 p.m.) at the Palais Montcalm de Québec and on July 14 (7:30 p.m.) at the Maison symphonique in Mendelssohn, Wagner, Sibelius, Boulanger and Bertrand.
When Messiaen takes up Quechua
Harawi is a nearly hour-long cycle for voice and piano that Messiaen composed in 1945 during a difficult time, when his first wife, the musician Claire Delbos, was seeing her mental health decline. The Lachine Concerts (July 8 to 22) offer a rare chance to hear this fascinating work integrating onomatopoeia and words in the Quecha language! See you on July 22 (7:30 p.m.) at Entrepôt 2901 in Lachine with pianist Rachael Kerr and mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh, First Prize (Aria category) at last year’s Montreal International Music Competition.
Carte blanche to Mathieu Gaudet at Bic
Want a breath of fresh air and music? The Concerts aux Iles du Bic will be held this year from August 5 to 12 in this village that could not be more picturesque in Bas-Saint-Laurent. The Festival will culminate with a gala concert on August 12 (8 p.m.) in the venue’s heritage church. Pianist Mathieu Gaudet, originally from Rimouski, will perform with some of the festival artists, including cellist Cameron Crozman and soprano Myriam Leblanc, in a program featuring Russian and Germanic repertoires.
Debussy morning at the Classical Spree
Among the many concerts offered by the Classical Spree 2023 (August 16 to 20), one nugget stands out: a solo recital by Swiss pianist Francesco Piemontesi. Former student of Alfred Brendel that the prestigious magazine Gramophone described as “an artist who really puts music first”, the musician will perform one of the peaks of the piano repertoire, the second book of Preludes by Debussy, which he has already recorded with Naïve. Music lovers will join him on stage at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier on Sunday, August 20, at 11 a.m., before going to listen to the Carmina Burana where the Vespers of the Virgin in the afternoon.