Author: Pauline Nesbitt

The Wall, Don Giovanni, Dialogues des Carmelites and more are coming to Montreal

The Opéra de Montréal announced the lineup of its 2016-2017 season at the pressroom of the Olympic stadium on March 3. The list of performances includes Aida, Don Giovanni, Dialogues des Carmelites and La Bohème, but it was the announcement of a new operatic adaptation of The Wall by Roger Waters, a founding member of Pink Floyd, that really had people talking.

This new piece, entitled Another Brick in the Wall – the Opera, will be part of the celebrations marking Montreal’s 375th anniversary. Waters, representatives of Opéra de Montréal and Montreal’s 375th Anniversary Committee were present at the announcement.

Waters said he wrote The Wall because of an unpleasant situation that occurred at the OdM 40 years ago that involved him spitting in the face of a spectator who appeared on stage during a Pink Floyd performance. Waters explained he spat because he perceived that the audience was not really listening to the music and lacked appreciation. He admitted to being a little fuzzy about the precise details of the event, but mused that at his age his memory shouldn’t be trusted anyway. However, he said creating The Wall certainly helped him move on “from the enmity of spitting in someone’s face towards a position where love becomes more important than that enmity.”

Waters said he was initially dismissive when he was first presented with the project because most symphonic versions of rock music he had heard sounded disastrous. “They [usually] stick slavishly to the melody,” he said, which is why he has consistently rejected all requests for commercial presentations of The Wall.

Waters said he had not really been involved in the development of the project so far. Composer Julien Bilodeau has been given complete creative freedom over the music, which he said is a dream come true, but Waters remains the librettist—the words are his.

Another Brick in the Wall – the Opera will be presented next March and will feature an all-Canadian cast.

Michel Beaulac, the OdM’s artistic director, described the season’s lineup as an operatic journey spanning two centuries of music, which includes several classical works. He explained that traditionally the Opéra de Montréal launches and ends each season with popular operas that he referred to as “blockbusters.” Those would be Aida in September, a grandiose, yet tragic tale of love and betrayal that is set in politically unstable Egypt; and La Bohème in May, a tale of love, youthful dreams and illusions.

Beaulac said he is completely committed to casting Canadian artists as much as possible and that 80 per cent of this season’s casts are Canadian. He added that young Canadians who have taken off in the operatic world across the globe would play most of the roles in Don Giovanni. “I chose that work because I could put together all those young artists who are great ambassadors for both Montreal and for Canada,” he said.

Beaulac pointed out that staging Don Giovanni and Dialogues des Carmelites provided excellent opportunities to showcase Canadian operatic talent. He said he had deliberately included the latter opera with Montrealer Serge Denoncourt in mind because he is such a talented stage director and, “it is one of [Denoncourt’s] fetish operas—he is completely overtaken by the story.”

Beaulac remarked that planning an opera is not easy, but it is important to have the best artist for each role. This means that in addition to possessing the right singing voice, they have to look the part and be able to act the role convincingly. He said he never schedules an opera until he has succeeded in attracting the artists he wants for each role.

 

Subscriptions for the season or single tickets can be purchased at the box office at Place des Arts or at operademontreal.com. The Opéra de Montréal offers a special rate of $25 for front row seats for all their productions to all students under 30.

The library is now hosting two exhibits by David Chandler and Stanley Sklar.

This is the last week to see two separate exhibits linked by themes of geography and history at the Côte-Saint-Luc Library. These displays are produced by two local residents—an antique map collector David Chandler and an artist Stanley Sklar.

Antique Maps from the Holy Land to New France, by David Chandler, offers a unique opportunity to examine original limited-edition maps. This exhibit features 56 maps and is divided into two parts: 17 maps feature the Holy Land and its surrounding area, and the remaining maps portray early North American and Montreal geography.

A helpful catalogue is available that offers valuable pointers that illuminate the information the maps contain. The maps are beautiful to look at and it is easy to appreciate the dedication and patience cartographers expended in producing them.

“I am a visual person,” said Chandler, a retired high school teacher whose love for maps began in childhood while living in the Maritimes. Chandler mentioned he started collecting antique maps in the early 1980s, and now owns thousands. “To see the big picture you need a paper map,” he said.

Chandler explained that the cartographers of antique maps usually never visited the areas they drew. Instead, they relied on reports from travellers and ship captains and used existing maps, along with a good measure of their imagination.

My attention was drawn to the La terra de Hochelaga map, which was created by an Italian cartographer in the 16th century when “[Cartier] went back home and nobody in France gave a sweet damn about him coming to New France, not even the king … and he could not get published at all,” said Chandler. The map was eventually published in an Italian book and shows Mont Real as the location for Mount Royal.

Chandler pointed out that some antique maps were deliberately embellished when they were created, referring to the Cartes du Lacs du Canada map as an example. He said it is suspected that the explorer, Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, “realized that he had not named anything after his benefactors back in France … so he created four or five little islands in Lake Superior that can be seen in the map of 1744.” Chandler said because cartographers copied from one another, these islands remained on maps until the early 19th century.

The exhibit can be viewed in the Community Art Space section of the library until Jan. 31.

Stanley Sklar’s art exhibit offers another dimension on the theme of history and geography that is guaranteed to evoke memories of home. This exhibit contains miniature replicas of buildings such as houses, famous restaurants, a food stall and a synagogue that are transformed by Sklar’s meticulous attention to the details he added to each scene.

Sklar, an award-winning designer of women’s eveningwear, studied draping at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, where he discovered “working on a mannequin with fabric and pinning, creating and shaping—that was my love,” said Sklar. In retirement, Sklar combined this passion with his skills as a designer and a creator to develop a new artistic expression that is three-dimensional.  

The fusion of the many little details that come together in the miniatures make the pleasure the occupants derive from their living space almost palpable to the viewer, while the busy scenes communicate the existing community spirit.

To transform these structures into homes Sklar said he replicated what he saw and took a multitude of pictures. In addition, he said he also spent time at the sites observing life in the neighbourhoods.

The homes displayed are encased in clear boxes and can be purchased. The exhibit is located in the fiction section of the library and will continue until an end date is announced.
The Côte-Saint-Luc library is located at 5851 Cavendish Boul.

The Pointe-à-Callière Museum is hosting Investigating Agatha Christie until April 17

Agatha Christie’s first visit to Montreal happened in 1922 as part of a world tour she did with her first husband, Archibald Christie, and now she is back in town. Get to know her at the Pointe-à-Callière Museum, where visitors can discover the many unknown aspects of her life that informed her literary process.  

The Investigating Agatha Christie exhibit opened in Montreal in early December and marks the 125th anniversary of her birth. Christie is the British author and creator of sleuth characters such as Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple. Many of her 66 mysteries, six novels, 150 short stories, 18 plays and two memoirs inspired films and television series. Christie has a way of mixing banal, everyday life events with mystery and intrigue by way of relatable characters who happen to be skilled detectives.

Although Christie died in 1976, the exhibit is designed for visitors to experience the tour in her company, almost as if she was holding the visitor by the hand. To create this experience, curator Élisabeth Monast Moreau had to listen to over 15 hours of recordings Christie made during her later years while working on her autobiography. Moreau described this process as similar to spending that time with Christie, which is made precious by the fact that Christie was known to be quite reserved and rarely gave interviews. Moreau described her as a very down to earth, yet practical, a woman who felt that she had to contribute something to the world. Even Christie’s own voice can be heard throughout the exhibit using strategically placed headphones.

In a May 2012 interview with The Guardian, Christie’s grandson, Matthew Prichard, described her as a “fiercely private” recluse—very little about her private life had been available to the public until now. The Investigating Agatha Christie exhibit reveals Christie’s love for travel and her willingness to embrace the different cultures she encountered, but most importantly it reveals her deep passion for archeology and the key role she played in the discovery and preservation of ancient artifacts found in Mesopotamia, even though she was not an archeologist.

The exhibit is meant to encourage Christie readers’ further appreciation of her work by revealing literary inspirations and to encourage those who haven’t picked up her work to do so, said Moreau. “For years, the museum wanted to present an exhibition that mixed Christie’s work with archeology, because … this part of her life experience is not known as [well as] her novels,” said Moreau.

In fact, Christie spent close to 30 years on her husband’s archeological digs in Iraq and Syria, where she worked as an active member of his team.

Moreau shared that the 320 items on display are the result of a collaborative effort between the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Royal Ontario Museum, John Mallowan, Christie’s nephew, and Prichard. Objects displayed include first editions of Christie’s books, letters and postcards she sent from Canada and a model of the Orient Express she took to Mesopotamia, and later made famous through her work.

The second floor of the exhibit offers a focus on Christie’s activities while on archeological digs and contains many priceless artifacts on loan from the collaborating museums. Of note are the head of a deity that was excavated by Mallowan in 1938, Christie’s cameras and her 1937 Remington typewriter, items of clothing that belonged to Christie and Mallowan, a relief of Nefertiti and Akhnaton and a headdress and necklace made of gold and lapis lazuli. There are also photographs, taken by Christie, of ancient sites and treasures that modern audiences can no longer enjoy as they have recently been destroyed by Daesh.

Exhibit goers can listen to Christie’s voice describe everything from preparations for her ventures into dig sites to her explaining the process of developing photographs in the sweltering heat. Although it appears that Christie was kept busy while at the dig sites, she was most prolific as a writer during these years, according to Moreau. But Christie was known to have fun too; through the headphones, she describes a workman’s foot race she organized to mark the end of the dig season at Tell Arpachiyah, in Syria, in 1933.

Moreau said that working with Prichard on this exhibition was “like a dream, because … [he wants people] to get to know his grandmother and her work.” She added that he attended the exhibit’s opening and said that he was left speechless.

Before visiting the exhibit myself, I reread a few of her short stories to get a reminder of her literary style, rather than drawing from the movie and T.V. adaptations of her work that so readily come to mind. Visiting the Investigating Agatha Christie exhibit truly enhanced my appreciation for her work.

 

The exhibit continues at the Pointe-à-Callière Museum in the Montreal Museum of Archeology and History Complex until April 17. Student tickets are $13. Every day at 1:30 p.m., the museum offers guided tours in English free of charge.

Justin Kingsley’s photography exhibit, Georges & Guy, explores two individuals and their passion for karate

The Georges & Guy photography exhibit by Justin Kingsley portrays the intimate relationship that exists between two friends who are passionate about karate.

Georges St-Pierre is a mixed martial artist and former Welterweight Champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Guy Guindon, a Saint Sulpice priest and a karate master, has practiced this sport with St-Pierre for many years.

Karate is traditionally linked to fighting and self-defense. However, the photographs and videos featured in the exhibit focus on the metaphysical aspect of this sport. To attain and maintain the required mental conditioning, self-discipline and humility, karate artists are required to practice “katas.” This word is used to describe the patterns of movements practiced either solo or in pairs, on a regular basis.

According to information contained in the exhibit’s pamphlet, when St-Pierre informed Kingsley that he would be meeting Guindon at the Saint Sulpice Seminary later on one day to practice katas, the photographer said, “a priest, a church, two black belts, a few katas and a makeshift dojo instead of catacombs. I had to be there.”  So he grabbed his Leica M6 camera and joined them. “I relied on the same photographic tools I’ve known for years and not an ounce of digital technology,” he said. This included using only the lighting that was available.

The exhibit starts with several videos that show the two friends practicing katas. They stand straight, eyes closed, appearing to work through a mental preparation before performing the movements. They proceed to discuss them and consult their kata workbook.

The photographs show St-Pierre and Guindon dressed in black-belted white karate suits in a dusty gym with mouldy damaged walls, floor tiles that belong in history and low-tech fitness equipment. The images Kingsley has captured emanate a feeling that the space had been transformed into a “dojo,” a sacred space where martial arts are practiced.

The first of the 17 photographs is of a punching bag held together with masking tape juxtaposed with a crucifix nailed to the wall. This clearly establishes a sacred tone to the whole event and suggests a link between location and the tenets of the sport. The remaining photographs show the master and student either in action as they work through the katas or in repose. The last, entitled “Fleurdelisé,” is of a tattoo on the back of St-Pierre’s shin that playfully puts a Quebec stamp on the exhibit.

The images are appealing and command both attention and interest because they look real, not staged. Kingsley’s use of natural lighting and his focus on the décor and furnishings of the room create a calm, peaceful aura. His choices of captions that have sacred connotations reinforce the overarching theme of personal, physical and spiritual development.
The George & Guy exhibit runs until Dec. 18 at the Phi Centre, 407 St. Pierre St. in Old Montreal. Entrance is free.

Akpik Theatre presents Tumit, a northern Indigenous play performed in English and French

Tumit, a northern Indigenous play that combines memory, poetry and traditional storytelling as a means of dealing with the curve balls life can throw your way, opened on Friday. This is the first northern play that was inspired, written, translated and performed by Indigenous women to be presented in Montreal in both English and French.

“Tumit,” the Inuktitut word for tracks, is used as a powerful metaphor in this one-woman play to signal both the geographical location of the action as well as the path Sarah, the main character, takes as she struggles with life. She is a woman in her thirties living in the Northwest Territories who discovers she is pregnant after having kicked her husband out. She is broke and has to move out of the apartment. While packing for the move she reflects on the different cycles of her life and gains a serenity that fortifies her determination to confront the challenges she faces.

Tumit was written by Reneltta Arluk, who lives in the Northwest Territories. She said that the inspiration came “from the gut”—a need to tell northern Indigenous stories to a wide audience. “We are a small population on a large land mass, and I think our stories should be shared with each other, with other people … Our young people’s voices are important,” said Arluk. She added that although the story could belong to any woman anywhere, it is the manner in which Sarah deals with the situation that makes it a unique northern story. For Arluk, Tumit “offers an opportunity for communities to come together … it’s a way to show and share.”

Jessica Abdullah considers directing this play as a social experiment, in that the actors used the same script in two languages. She added that while the performances are distinctly different, the actors came up with similar elements for their character development without her guidance, which she attributes to a successful French translation. “It was crazy at times, to be going from one [language] to the next, but fascinating,” said Abdullah. She mused that the play evokes a motif of perfection, but Sarah’s tracks show that accepting life as it unravels, “warts and all,” makes us stronger.

Arluk assumes the role of Sarah in English, while Emilie Monnet, a French-speaking Montrealer and Indigenous woman, plays this character in French.

Although the action takes place in the apartment, an interesting mix of recorded sounds and music track Sarah’s life. A soft, haunting music filled with bird song recalls her childhood when she accompanied her grandparents as they followed the tracks of rabbits out on the ice. Pieces of popular music situate her as a young adult and the Indigenous voices heard throughout the play stamp its location.

After Friday’s performance in English, Arluk shared her culture by offering a tasting of bannock—an Indigenous flat bread—that was served with stew.

Tumit is produced by Akpik Theatre, which develops and produces northern Indigenous stories. Performances continue until Nov. 21 at Mainline Theatre, 3998 St. Laurent Blvd. Student tickets are $20 and can be purchased at akpiktheatre.com/tumit.