She has a 40-year career and dozens of successes to her credit. She has nothing left to prove. Nevertheless, it is with the passion of a young premiere that Marie Denise Pelletier revisits her repertoire with Under my female skina new tour leaving no doubt: the singer is among our greatest voices.
On stage, a handful of musicians. A stool. Nothing else. As soon as Marie Denise Pelletier appears on stage to the sound of This woman, the tone is immediately set; we put aside all the usual artifices for this tour, just to let the singer’s voice take all the space.
Because if some are looking to impress, Marie Denise Pelletier obviously intended to impress us during her return to Montreal at the Cinquième salle at Place des arts on Thursday evening. And that is precisely what she did throughout this hundred-minute singing tour which often took on the appearance of a master class.
From yesterday to today
On the program: pieces from its most recent offering – Under my female skin – having given the tour its title. But the singer was certainly not going to shy away from her pleasure – nor ours, for that matter – by putting aside the successes that have marked her illustrious career. Marie Denise Pelletier thus waltzes happily between eras to move from her immortals to her more recent titles. And it is with the same skill, the same impressive vocal control, that she creates an exhaustive overview of these four decades of career.
If we happily reconnect with the titles that forged our reputation – For a one night stand, All the SOS cries, At 17 years old, Left via Vancouver and company – we discover with just as much pleasure the more recent pieces added to his repertoire with the publication of Under my skin wife last fall. Of the lot, we would be remiss if we ignored the magnificent When love wants to die (born from the pen and piano of Claude Gauthier) and I knew you (the result of a collaboration between Moran and Catherine Major), two of the highlights of this tour.
We have finally discovered what lies beneath the feminine skin of Marie Denise Pelletier: one of the greatest voices in Quebec, undoubtedly. But also a performer at the top of her art, always capable of touching and moving people like few others can.
- Marie Denise Pelletier will return to the stage of the Fifth Room at Place des arts on Friday evening. The tour Under my female skin continues until November.