Semaine du Neuf 2025 : NANATASIS, Opéra en Trois Légendes
by Rédaction PAN M 360
Présenté en première dans le cadre de la 20e édition du Festival international de Casteliers, ce spectacle créé par Nicole O’Bomsawin et Alejandra Odgers nous transporte dans un monde magique inspiré de légendes abénakises. Découvrez les aventures d’un jeune Abénakis qui deviendra un héros après avoir traversé bien des épreuves. Sous la direction de Troy Hourie et Christopher Gaudreault, une talentueuse équipe de quinze musiciens, chanteurs et marionnettistes entre en scène au milieu de décors oniriques pour entraîner le public dans un univers fantastique. « Nanatasis est un spectacle qui réveille l’enfant qui sommeille en nous. Une ode à la culture abénakise et à la nature. »
Premiered at the Casteliers puppet festival, this show created by Nicole O’Bomsawin and Alejandra Odgers transports us to a magical world inspired by Abenaki legends. Discover the adventures of a young Abenaki who becomes a hero after facing many trials. Under the direction of Troy Hourie and Christopher Gaudreault, a talented team of fifteen musicians, choristers, and puppeteers takes the stage amidst dreamlike sets to draw the audience into a fantastic universe. “Nanatasis is a show that awakens the child within us. An ode to Abenaki culture and nature.”
Programme
Nanatasis: Opéra en Trois Légendes (2024) Alejandra Odgers (musique) Nicole O’Bomsawin (livret)
Program
Nanatasis: Opéra en Trois Légendes (2024) Alejandra Odgers (music) Nicole O’Bomsawin (booklet)
Dear Criminals at Théâtre Outremont | Rallumer la flamme
by Sami Rixhon
Long time no see! How are you, Dear Criminals? Electro-minimal trio Dear Criminals gave their first major performance in their hometown of Montreal in five years this weekend at Théâtre Outremont.
Dear Criminals last performed in the metropolis in a regular format at Le Gesù in 2019. A lot has happened since then. It seems the world has become a little more violent, a little more anxious. Fortunately, we still have music.
The band kicks off their performance with Visions, Starless and Waste Land, three tracks from their album Fatale. Virtually the entire 2017 project will be performed tonight, and it’s no coincidence: the compositions require the contribution of a string quartet, which is present tonight (as are a bassist and a drummer), something rather rare in Dear Criminals shows. For their only Montreal performance of the year, we might as well go all in,” Frannie told me in an interview a few days ago.
What’s striking about Dear Criminals’ live performances is the band’s ability to quickly create a steamy, tender atmosphere. There’s an almost sensual tension in the air, so carefully and sparingly are the notes sung and played.
What also strikes the listener, even more so on stage than in the studio, is how completely the three members of the band complement each other. Frannie Holder’s voice is crystalline and fragile, Charles Lavoie knits in a kind of arrogant romanticism, while Vincent Legault brings the Dear Criminals sound to life with his keyboards. There’s nothing like Dear Criminals in Montreal, and that’s all to their advantage.
While the overall performance was highly enjoyable, it was clear that this evening’s show was closer to a “running-in” than to the grandiose proposition to which the band has been accustoming audiences for the past 10 years. In previous shows, Dear Criminals had enlisted the services of a high-school choir (in the Saint-Jean-Baptiste church, no less), 3D effects and contemporary dancers.
Today’s offering is more conventional… and that’s no bad thing. The trio need to reunite with their old songs, they need to rekindle the flame before returning to the stage with an even crazier concept. The year 2025 will probably also see a new stage or studio production for the band, once again from a reliable source (the information comes from Frannie Holder, in fact. Couldn’t be more reliable).
Dear Criminals closes the regular segment of their show with Stay Tonight, probably the most beautiful song the band has ever written. I have a special relationship with this song. I heard it in May 2020, when Covid was raging, at the Lion d’Or cabaret. The project was called Lone Ride. I was cloistered behind three Plexiglas walls. I was alone on stage, they on the other side were three, playing and watching me. Strange times, eh? It seems a long time ago all of a sudden. I’d only been allowed one song, so I had to leave my place to someone else alone afterwards. The whole thing only lasted three, four minutes, and yet it stuck. I still consider that moment to be one of the most powerful musical experiences I’ve had in recent years.
It was the first time I’d heard the song live. It was 800 times less intimate (800 being the number of people present that evening), and yet it made me realize just how far we’ve all come since then.
It’s good to be together again.
LIST OF SONGS ON THE PROGRAM
1. Visions 2. Starless 3. Waste Land 4. Little Thief 5. Yet Not the End 6. Mark my Words 7. Nelly 8. Coldwave 9. Gravedigger 10. Song for Elisabeth 11. Lover’s Suicide 12. At Bay 13. Lies in Blue 14. Lala 15. Coco 16. Rose 17. Slowdisco 18. Stay Tonight
Véritable égérie acadienne, la grande Édith Butler dont la présentation n’est plus à faire, nous invite à faire Le Tour du Grand Bois, référence à son plus récent album du même nom duquel Lisa LeBlanc a assuré la réalisation. Après 50 ans de carrière, celle qui a fait connaître Paquetville bien au-delà de nos frontières demeure tout aussi inspirée, enthousiaste et énergique. Très peu présente sur les scènes montréalaises depuis quelques années, c’est accompagnée de trois musiciens et du pep dans l’soulier qu’elle nous convie au Théâtre Outremont pour une balade au cœur de son répertoire.
A true Acadian muse, the great Édith Butler, whose name no longer needs introduction, invites us to take Le Tour du Grand Bois, a reference to her most recent album of the same name, produced by Lisa LeBlanc. After a career spanning 50 years, the singer who put Paquetville on the map far beyond our borders remains as inspired, enthusiastic and energetic as ever. Rarely seen on Montreal stages in recent years, she invites us to the Théâtre Outremont for a stroll through her repertoire, accompanied by three musicians and some pep in her step.
Dans Ilhada, son nouvel album, Mônica Freire propose un voyage musical où son Brésil natal rencontre le Proche-Orient. Reflet du parcours d’une artiste qui se nourrit de ses diverses influences, les chansons, tour à tour dansantes et percutantes, naviguent entre le portugais et le français. Des pièces délicates et poétiques où il est question d’identité et d’exil, mais aussi de force et de joie.
In Ilhada, her new album, Mônica Freire takes us on a musical journey where her native Brazil meets the Middle East. Reflecting the journey of an artist who draws on her diverse influences, the songs, by turns danceable and hard-hitting, navigate between Portuguese and French. Delicate, poetic pieces about identity and exile, but also about strength and joy.
The result of an introspective retreat, the songs on Bruits Blanc, Caroline Savoie ‘s 3rd album produced by Joe Grass, were born in the heart of Acadia, in a landscape both generous and austere, in a climate as calm as it is tormented. More personal than ever, they are the very embodiment of her desire for independence and authenticity. Building on a decade of over 500 shows across French-speaking Canada and Europe, Caroline Savoie and her three musicians, Marco Gosselin, Donald O’Brien and Alexi Rioux, return to the stage to present the songs of Bruits blancs.
Résultat d’une retraite introspective, c’est au cœur de l’Acadie, dans ce paysage à la fois généreux et austère, dans ce climat aussi calme que tourmenté, que les chansons de Bruits blanc, 3e album de Caroline Savoie réalisé par Joe Grass, sont nées. Plus personnelles que jamais, elles sont l’incarnation même de son désir d’indépendance et d’authenticité. Forte d’une décennie qui compte plus de 500 spectacles à travers la francophonie canadienne et l’Europe, Caroline Savoie et ses trois musiciens, Marco Gosselin, Donald O’Brien et Alexi Rioux, retrouvent la scène pour présenter les chansons de Bruits blancs.
Beatrice Deer, vedette acclamée du pop inuindie, est une auteure-compositrice-interprète basée à Montréal. Moitié inuk et moitié mohawk, Béatrice est née et a grandi au Nunavik, au Québec, dans le petit village de Quaqtaq. Elle a sorti six albums studio, dont son plus récent, intitulé SHIFTING. Ses chansons primées sont conçues sur des paroles profondément personnelles et mélangent le rock indépendant et le folk moderne avec des histoires traditionnelles inuites et des chants de gorge.
Acclaimed Inuindie pop star Beatrice Deer is a singer-songwriter based in Montreal. Half Inuk and half Mohawk, Beatrice was born and raised in Nunavik, Quebec, in the small village of Quaqtaq. She has released six studio albums, including her most recent, SHIFTING. Her award-winning songs are crafted with deeply personal lyrics and blend indie rock and modern folk with traditional Inuit stories and throat singing.
Le JAZZLAB ORCHESTRA de Montréal, se définit comme un groupe spécifique, une véritable institution dans l’univers du jazz canadien depuis 2004. Le groupe explore l’écriture musicale dans de nombreux styles, appuyé à chaque fois par des compositeurs et des musiciens époustouflants.
Toujours en recherche avec la nouvelle expérience LOGUSLABUSMUZIKUS, le tout nouveau programme musical, auquel le groupe s’est attelé, rejoint complètement l’esprit artistique de plusieurs idées évocatrices du jazz moderne d’aujourd’hui. L’effervescence est grande, portée sans cesse par des musiciens stupéfiants qui poussent aussi bien l’enjeu du collectif, que leurs propres chants. Les séquences se succèdent avec une pluralité d’éléments thématiques marqués par une sorte d’audace, qui emporte l’ensemble jusqu’aux confins. Le thermomètre monte à chaque fois que la nouvelle expérience du JAZZLAB ORCHESTRA évolue. Que du puissant…
Le JAZZLAB ORCHESTRA, ensemble multigénérationnel composé de Mario Allard, (ss, as, cl); Claire Devlin (ss, ttl); Annie Dominique (ss, as, clb); Jacques Kuba Seguin (tp); Thomas Morelli-Bernard (tb); Félix Stussi (p); Alain Bédard (cb); Michel Lambert (drs), livre encore une fois un terroir compositionnel d’une rare intensité.
Au Théâtre Outremont en complément : Théo Lambert artiste multi-média et 3 danseurs surprises.
Montreal’s JAZZLAB ORCHESTRA, defines itself as a specific group, a true institution in the Canadian jazz universe since 2004. The group explores music writing in many styles, supported each time by amazing composers and musicians.
Always in search with the new LOGUSLABUSMUZIKUS experience, the brand new musical program that the group has tackled, is completely in line with the artistic spirit of many evocative ideas of modern jazz today. The effervescence is great, carried unceasingly by amazing musicians who push the collective issue as well as their own songs. The sequences follow one another with a plurality of thematic elements marked by audacity, which carries the ensemble to the limits. The thermometer rises with each new experience of the JAZZLAB ORCHESTRA. Only powerful…
The JAZZLAB ORCHESTRA, a multigenerational ensemble composed of Mario Allard, (ss, as, cl); Claire Devlin (ss, ttl); Annie Dominique (ss, as, clb); Jacques Kuba Seguin (tp); Thomas Morelli-Bernard (tb); Félix Stussi (p); Alain Bédard (cb); Michel Lambert (drs), delivers once again a compositional soil of rare intensity.
At the Outremont Theatre in addition: Théo Lambert, multi-media artist, and 3 surprise dancers.
Stay tuned! is the second opus of a trilogy whose purpose is to explore the roots and multiple identities of Dominique Fils-Aimé, and it’s the main source of a magnificent show that has already garnered critical acclaim. Soul, gospel, blues, jazz, and above all the grace of a magnetic, refined and talented artist converge. The public was appropriately impressed, and now the Montreal singer (of Haitian origin) returns to Théâtre Outremont.
Niyaz’s craft is based on the integration of traditional and sacred songs with a contemporary aesthetic. Their choice of instruments cements the East-West connection: keyboards, guitars, digital apps, santur, saz, kaval, kopuz, bendir, riq, qanun, tabla and sarod.
Founded in 2005, Niyaz is a band of Iranian origin formed around Azam Ali (voice, percussion and santur) and Loga Ramin Torkian (multi-instrumentalist). The couple and their child lived in Montreal for the past decade, then returned to California, where they had previously been based.
Recorded between Montreal and Istanbul, the album The Fourth Light is made up of the duo’s original songs, to which Turkish, Afghan and Iranian pieces are added. The songs are also inspired by Rabia Al Basri, a Sufi poetess and ascetic from the 8th century. The Fourth Light was launched in 2015, and five years later Niyaz come back to Montreal to perform it, roadtested and true.
Théâtre Outremont’s website notes, “The Fourth Light is a multimedia show, conceived by Jérôme Delapierre, where oriental lutes unfold in electroacoustic instrumentation and where lighting and scenography combine with the dance of Tanya Evanson, one of the few dervish dancers.”
Montréal Guitare Trio and California Guitar Trio: « Six guitares au sommet! »
by Michel Rondeau
Photo Credit: I. Vadnais
A meeting of two guitar trios, one from Montreal and the other from California. For the past 10 years or so, the musicians of the sextet thus formed have been getting together periodically to jam, record or perform. The show at l’Outremont is part of a North American tour that will take them to six other cities in Quebec.
In a Landscape, their most recent album together, produced in a church in the township of Gore, a municipality in the Laurentians north of Lachute, gives a good idea of the repertoire expected on the tour. It features both original pieces by members of the sextet and rearranged covers, such as Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes”, David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”, “Perpetuum Mobile” by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra and the title track, composed by John Cage.
Salomé Leclerc undeniably found her path while exploring Les choses extérieures, by far the most conclusive recording of a career still in its early stages. Echoes of the concerts that followed were mostly enyhusiastic, and the cycle is not yet over. This abundantly talented lyricist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, director and performer, certainly one of the dominant figures in French-speaking North America at the turn of this decade, needs to be seen live. You’ll have to get off the couch to appreciate the more robust live versions of her excellent album’s tunes, to which are added her best works of earlier vintage. A must, without a doubt.
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