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Artistic Programming
— Michel Marc Bouchard, playwright
Thank You for Supporting Daring New Works, Season After Season
The creation of new works is central to the identity of the Opéra de Montréal. That process has kept the company on the cutting edge, while also reflecting its commitment to a path of innovation and artistic collaboration.
Each of our projects presents an opportunity to bring together and showcase the exceptional creative forces that abound within the cultural ecosystems of Montréal and Québec. That being the case, the Opéra de Montréal can lay — in reflection of its own high standards, with the support of private individuals and visionary partners like you — an inherently Montréal cornerstone towards the building of opera during the 21st century.
Many thanks! Michel Beaulac Artistic Director
Michel Beaulac
LE FLAMBEAU DE LA NUIT
Presented in September 2021 at Théâtre Maisonneuve, as the second half of Riders to the Sea
For this work, we hired a duo of young creators: playwright Olivier Kemeid and composer Hubert Tanguay-Labrosse. This project also marked the beginning of a reflection on diversity and inclusion within an artistic context — an approach supported by the Zarda Créations agency.
The online broadcast of the program received more than 1,900 views.
YOURCENAR – UNE ÎLE DE PASSIONS
Presented in August 2022 at Centre Pierre-Péladeau, in collaboration with the Festival d’été de Québec and Les Violons du Roy
Hélène Dorion and the late Marie-Claire Blais wrote the libretto for this work, in homage to famous French author Marguerite Yourcenar. The musical composition was written by Éric Champagne. Onstage, the work was superbly performed by a new generation of singers, all of whom were Québécois. Le Flambeau de la nuit, 2021
Yourcenar – Une île de passions, 2022
COMING SOON, THANKS TO YOU
In the months ahead, thanks to your unstinting support, our audiences will have the pleasure of enjoying four new works produced or coproduced by the Opéra de Montréal.
LA BEAUTÉ DU MONDE
This production has certainly played hard to get! Twice postponed due to the pandemic, it has finally been rescheduled for November 2022. Like you, we are burning with desire to see and hear it in full at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. Don’t forget that it features the work of playwright Michel Marc Bouchard (Les Feluettes) and composer Julien Bilodeau (Another Brick in the Wall - The Opera).
BEING
This operatic adaptation of the masterpiece Being at Home with Claude, by playwright (and librettist) René-Daniel Dubois, brings together an artistic team featuring Blair Thomson (music), Félix-Antoine Boutin (director) and artists-inresidence from the Atelier lyrique. In 2021–2022, the latter also played an active role in helping to develop the project, which will likely debut in 2023.
ENIGMA
Produced in collaboration with the Opéra de Metz (France), this work featuring two tenors, a women’s choir, and an orchestra draws its inspiration from the play Variations énigmatiques by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt. Constructed like a psychological thriller, it will be presented for the first time in France in Fall 2022, and in Montréal during the 2023–2024 season.
A LETTER TO GENERAL FRANCO
This work is inspired by the courageous act of Spanish poet Arrabal, who wrote an open letter to Fascist general Franco while Franco was still in power. In this new production, sculptor Macario is being hunted by the Madrid militia. Taking refuge in an underground shelter, he produces one last work: a cry of rage aimed at the Franco dictatorship. Only his niece Anita knows his hiding place. She discovers the letter to Franco, which the artist has penned with his dying breath. Will she cross the Pyrenees to denounce the regime and free Spain from its oppressors? Michel Marc Bouchard Julien Bilodeau
A workshop of Being
Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt
