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Maalouf © JF PAGA Grasset

Amin Maalouf: Up-Close with the Man from “Afar”

By Charles Geyer on 31 December 2016 Contemporary, Interviews, Opera

INTERVIEW: with Amin Maalouf (Kaija Saariaho’s librettist-collaborator on L’Amour de loin and other works) The opera L’Amour de loin – or Love from Afar – premiered to conspicuous plaudits in Salzburg in 2000, and has enjoyed numerous productions around the globe. It also signaled the beginning of a remarkably fertile, ongoing collaboration between composer Kaija Saariaho and then first-time librettist Amin Maalouf. Maalouf has since partnered with Saariaho on three more musico-dramatic works, all of them sharing certain distinctive features: strong female characters, epitomizing a generative, rancorless strain of feminism; an elusive, gossamer air of mysticism; a usually gentle, ultimately…

Quartom: The Magic Ingredients

By Caroline Rodgers on 1 December 2016 Interviews, Quebec Music, Vocal

It’s hard not to like Quartom. How could you not like these four convivial pals, who crack jokes in between melodious harmonies? Wherever they go, they leave smiling listeners behind them. La Scena Musicale met with Quartom at the Rialto Theatre for an interview and photo session, punctuated by silly antics and contagious laughter. A cappella quartet Quartom, formed by baritones Benoit Le Blanc and Julien Patenaude, tenor Gaétan Sauvageau, and bass Philippe Martel, is on a hot roll with the release of their third album, Acte III, on ATMA Classique, as well as a series of shows that will…

Juan Andrés Arango, X500

Juan Andrés Arango: X500

By Camilo Lanfranco on 1 December 2016 Film, Interviews

Montreal-based filmmaker explores cultural identity, transformation and migration Soon after being showcased at no less than 16 major festivals internationally, the film X500 (X Quinientos) will be hitting Montreal cinemas this winter. Winner at the Los Cabos Film Festival for best feature (Mexico First category) and an official selection at the TIFF, the film explores the construction of identity during adolescence, and the adverse reality faced by three migrants in three different countries: Canada, Mexico, and Colombia. Born in Bogotá, Colombia, director Juan Andrés Arango discovered his passion for filmmaking in Vancouver. After winning a scholarship to an international high school,…

La Scena Musicale Team, Photo: Marc Bourgeois

La Scena Musicale Turns 20! Rising Stars Gala 2016: Highlights

By Hassan Laghcha on 1 December 2016 Canadian Music, Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Interviews, Quebec Music

La Scena Musicale has reached a major milestone: its 20th birthday. The gala-concert celebration on November 24 at the Salle Pierre-Mercure of the Centre Pierre-Péladeau was brimming with youthful optimism. Many up-and-coming classical musicians and opera singers animated this event, which was dedicated to the late journalist and author Lucie Renaud, one of La Scena Musicale’s most brilliant collaborators. “We launched La Scena Musicale at a time when the future of classical music seemed uncertain, and our mission was to inform, educate, inspire, and to promote classical music and make it accessible to the public, to tap into the imaginations…

Madeleine Thien, Photo: Marc Bourgeois

Award-Winning Author Madeleine Thien on Freedom, Beauty, and Sorrow

By Rebecca Anne Clark on 1 December 2016 Classical Music, Interviews, Literature

It’s been a busy autumn for Montreal-based author Madeleine Thien, whose fourth book, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, has been garnering unambiguous praise since its summer release. After collecting a bevy of smaller prizes, her latest has finally brought her Canada’s biggest literary awards: in addition to being shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Do Not Say We Have Nothing has won both the Governor General’s Award and the Giller Prize this year. Thien is no stranger to success. After being named “most promising Canadian writer under age 30” by the Canadian Authors Association in 2001, her first book,…

Paula Berry (Alcina), Opera McGill 2016

Opera McGill at 60

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 December 2016 Education, Interviews, Musical Theatre, Opera

If you peel back the layers of any opera company in Canada, you are likely to find Opera McGill graduates at every level: on the stage, beneath the stage, and behind the stage. Take Opéra de Montréal’s recent production of Don Giovanni, for example. While bass-baritone Gordon Bintner, who played his first Don Giovanni at McGill four years ago, reprised the title role, rising star Jordan De Souza led from the pit. Soprano Emily Dorn (Donna Anna) is an alumna, and the show’s stage director, American David Lefkowich also has connections to the program, having directed The Rake’s Progress at…

Murals by MU (detail), in the Michel Michel de la Chenelière International Atelier for education and art therapy. Photo MMFA, Denis Farley

A Splendid Pavilion for Peace and Art Therapy

By Hassan Laghcha on 1 December 2016 Arts Industry, Interviews, Visual Arts

The Museum of Fine Arts commemorates the Hornsteins. Emotions were running high at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA). On November 4, 2016, the solemn inauguration of the Pavilion for Peace took place. The pavilion bears the names of two of the most prominent patrons in MMFA history: Michal and Renata Hornstein. The two passed away just a few months before the event and the beginning of Montreal’s 375th anniversary celebration. They had both prepared speeches for the occasion. “As Holocaust survivors, we want the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace to be a safe and pleasant space…

Jean-Michel Dubé on André Mathieu

By Camilo Lanfranco on 1 November 2016 Canadian Music, Discovery CDs, Interviews, Piano, Quebec Music

Jean-Michel Dubé is the youngest in a family of five children, four of whom are pianists. At the age of three, he started studying piano at home with his mother who was herself a pianist. At age seven, he entered the Conservatoire de musique de Québec. In 2015, he was awarded the grand prize at the Concours Hélène-Roberge, which allowed him to record, with the help of Espace XXI and Aramusique, the works of André Mathieu. Mathieu’s complete piano works have never been recorded before, making this disc a world premiere. How did you arrive to André Mathieu’s work? The idea…

Valérie Milot, Photo: Alain Lefort

Valérie Milot: Beyond the Harp

By Caroline Rodgers on 1 November 2016 Contemporary, Interviews, Orchestral, Quebec Music

Valérie Milot defines herself as a musician first and a harpist second. At age 31, she is nothing less than the most visible and active ambassador of the harp that Quebec has seen in recent history. She is the soloist-in-residence for Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain for the 2016–17 season. Music is important in the Milot family. They even play it together. “My father was a great lover of classical music,” she says. “He played several instruments, including classical guitar. We, his three children, took introductory music classes before we even went to school. It was part of our family life: we…

20th Anniversary: Quotes from LSM Ambassadors

By La Scena Musicale Team on 1 November 2016 Classical Music, Interviews, Quebec Music

Keri-Lynn Wilson: Congratulations to the marvellous La Scena Musicale for the last twenty years of your extraordinary publication. The musical world is extremely enriched by your passionate reporting on arts in Quebec. Thank you for being an indispensable resource for sharing the musical experience outside of the symphony hall, the opera stage, or the jazz club and for inspiring a new public to participate in current events. With La Scena Musicale, the arts have a future! Bravo! Stéphane Tétreault: It is with great pleasure and pride that I support La Scena Musicale. For two decades, La Scena Musicale provides invaluable…

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