Festival Classica Goes Opera

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The history of opera in Quebec begins a new chapter this year with the arrival of Nouvel Opéra Métropolitain (NOM). In its upcoming 13th edition, Festival Classica paves the way for the future by introducing a most promising and ambitious component in its program devoted to this genre, with no less than three original productions—two of which are world premières: L’Homme qui rit (2023), L’adorable Belboul (1874) and Miguela (1891).

New opera, new venue

The festival team and its joint artistic and managing director Marc Boucher have worked out an agreement unlike any other with the venue, the Salle Claude-Champagne. Earnest discussions with the U of M Music Faculty’s Dean Nathalie Fernando have secured dates for several productions in 2024, with an eye to shoring up the partnership in June 2025, and furthering the event’s long-term goal. “The venue is an ideal home for NOM, both for its size and location,” says Boucher, adding that the team wants to establish an annual opera festival in Montreal, like the one Opéra de Québec set up in the provincial capital.

Eco-friendly

Boucher explains that all three productions of this initial run will be presented in what he calls an immersive concert format: “Rather than setting up the stage with backdrops, we will generate virtual projections throughout the hall.” This arrangement follows one of three guidelines contained in Festival Classica’s newly revamped policy.

  • Committing to a right to work in the French language in Quebec cultural institutions.
  • Ensuring a healthy work environment with a zero-tolerance threshold for any form of intimidation.
  • Reducing the carbon footprint of operatic stage productions by means of pro-active measures aimed at sustainable development, costume and set designs, for example.

More than a good laugh

Marc Boucher thinks big. A case in point is the opening event of this first edition, the result of a commission to composer Airat Ichmouratov and a librettist, poet Bertrand Laverdure. According to Boucher: “Airat told me more than once that he always dreamt of writing an opera. So I asked him if he had a story in mind, and he came back to me with L’Homme qui rit, by Victor Hugo. I know of none written on this tale, so I thought it a great idea. The only thing was, he did not have a librettist in mind, so I recommended Bertrand to him.”

As the work is about ready to go, it stands to reason that everything worked out between the two co-authors—to everyone’s delight, of course. “If I may say so, they produced a mighty fine piece of work, somewhat in the Italian tradition, Puccini-like if you will,” says Boucher.“Great music, and very well orchestrated, too. There are even a few catchy melodies, and lot of emotion in it that comes across like musical mementos akin to those that surface in Turandot.” Bolstered by this first joint effort, Boucher has given his seal of approval to this team by commissioning another work for its 2026 season, for which he provided a few clues: “It is based on a novel by Balzac, which means we are deep into that great tradition of writers of the French romantic period, with plenty of great stories in need of telling.”

French Commedia dell’arte, ca. 1874

A decade ago, the manuscript of a seemingly long-lost Massenet opera, entitled L’adorable Belboul, turned up one day at Sotheby’s auction house. Written in 1874 and performed at the home of one of the cast members, this one-act farce for five voices and small orchestra was published in France by the music editor Symétrie in 2018. On June 6, it receives its Quebec première as the second presentation of the NOM series.

“L’adorable Belboul is unabashed commedia dell’arte,” Boucher notes,with archetypes like Pantalone, Colombine and Harlequin, but transposed to late 19th-century Samarkand, a middle-Eastern setting that entertained the minds of many a composer from that era—Ravel’s Shéhérazade being another. French mezzo Pauline Sabatier will play the part of the beautiful Zai-za along with an all-local cast comprised of Myriam Leblanc, Florence Bourget, Antonio Figueroa and Geoffroy Salvas, with François Racine as director of the stage production. This, you could say, is a follow-up to the Massenet box set issued a few months ago by Atma Classique records.

Another World Première

Boucher has always had a soft spot for the music of Théodore Dubois. In 2017, he worked with conductor Jean-Claude Malgoire to stage the dramatic oratorio Le Paradis perdu as part of a program devoted exclusively to that composer. Once done with that, they turned their sights on another Dubois opus, Miguela, his last and unfinished work from 1891, performed only once in Paris five years later by the Concerts Lamoureux, and left to languish in obscurity at the French national library. The whopping 800-page complete handwritten score of Dubois was in the editing process when Malgoire died. Yet, Boucher and Festival Classica found an editor for it, and have readied it for a world-première in its complete version for this June, with yet another cast of stellar voices.

“We are now blessed in Quebec with one of the best generations of operatic singers ever,” enthuses Boucher. “It is our duty to increase the number of performances—fully staged or not—and to let these wonderful artists strut their stuff. We are now witnessing in the world that foreign economies and markets are turning more inwardly: that is a cue to me that we should tend more to our own as well.”

Translation by Marc Chénard

Festival Classica, 13th edition: “De Fauré à Félix”

NOM events
L’homme qui rit, by Airat Ichmouratov (May 31)
L’Adorable Belboul, by Jules Massenet (June 6)
Miguela, by Théodore Dubois (June 14).

www.festivalclassica.com

This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en: Francais (French)

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About Author

Justin Bernard est détenteur d’un doctorat en musique de l’Université de Montréal. Ses recherches portent sur la vulgarisation musicale, notamment par le biais des nouveaux outils numériques, ainsi que sur la relation entre opéra et cinéma. En tant que membre de l’Observatoire interdisciplinaire de création et de recherche en musique (OICRM), il a réalisé une série de capsules vidéo éducatives pour l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. Justin Bernard est également l’auteur de notes de programme pour le compte de la salle Bourgie du Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal et du Festival de Lanaudière. Récemment, il a écrit les notices discographiques pour l'album "Paris Memories" du pianiste Alain Lefèvre (Warner Classics, 2023) et collaboré à la révision d'une édition critique sur l’œuvre du compositeur Camille Saint-Saëns (Bärenreiter, 2022). Ses autres contrats de recherche et de rédaction ont été signés avec des institutions de premier plan telles que l'Université de Montréal, l'Opéra de Montréal, le Domaine Forget et Orford Musique. Par ailleurs, il anime une émission d’opéra et une chronique musicale à Radio VM (91,3 FM).

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