Angèle Dubeau often repeats: she listens to the public. You can also listen to her tell the anecdote about this Marc Hervieux concert, given on the Québécor stage, this Sunday evening in Tremblant. People had not had enough of the tenor last year, when he came to present the play A Voice to be Loved: Maria Callas, with Sophie Faucher. It is true that he sings very little in that production. And Angèle, always on site and ready to receive the spectators’ comments, clearly heard the many people who told her: “it was very beautiful, but we were hoping to hear Marc sing more often!”. That was last year. This year, Marc returned, with the mandate to satisfy the festival-goers. Satisfy as in “having a feast,” and a real feast it was! A copious buffet at a big Italian party, with Neapolitan songs (and Italian and Sicilian, to be precise) in abundance, sung by a master of ceremonies in formidable form. From the moment he stepped on stage, Hervieux galvanized the crowd, like a Sinatra in the good old days of Live at the Sands. And then the timeless titles followed one another, Volare, Torna a Surriento, Arrivederci Roma, Parla Piu Piano, Core’n’grato, etc., colorful and delivered with the mastery of a connoisseur. Hervieux is totally in his element here. For each piece, a presentation, simple and embellished with strokes of humor that hit the mark. An hour and a half like that, and the audience would have taken double, I think. You may know me: I like copious and complex music, even demanding and even experimental. As a result, you will probably think that it was a rather “light” set for my usual sonic palate. I would answer that no one, not even a strange music-loving insect like me, can turn up their nose at it and that, moreover, you would have to be monumentally bad-faith-ish not to recognize the absolute perfection of this kind of entertainment. When it’s done with so much sincerity, authenticity, and generosity, one can only bow before such flawless success.
