The final phase of Cirque du Soleil’s year-long 30th anniversary celebrations began Thursday with a preview performance of a series of spectacular concerts officially opening Saturday at St-Jean-Baptiste Church.
This limited-run, only-in-Montreal event ends Dec. 28.
For once, Cirque fans from around the world will have to travel to Montreal or miss out on a new creation.
Granted, this is a concert, not a circus.
The central problem with Cirque’s musical archives: they contain only one genuine earworm song, Alegria, composed by René Dupéré with lyrics by Franco Dragone, Claude Amesse and Manuel Tadros.
Understandably, this song was saved for the finale (with a bit of Saltimbanco’s Kumbalawé to top it off).
Dupéré was the Cirque’s in-house composer during the early days when Franco Dragone reigned as stage director. His flowing, often melancholic music, which could be loosely classified as new age (with a dash of jazz and world beat), was written to enhance acrobatic performances. This was also true of the music of Benoît Jutras, and other composers who followed, such as Violane Corradi (Varekai) and the team of Bob and Bill (Totem, Amaluna).
Adding a 70-voice choir and 30 musicians (split into orchestra and house band) within a wonderfully ornate nouveau baroque church certainly enhances the mystical side of the music.
Musical directors Gregory Charles and Alain Vinet brought the rich voices of eight veteran Cirque soloists (Francine Poitras, Roxanne Potvin, Paul Bisson, Audrey Brisson-Jutras, Dominic Dagenais, Estelle Esse, Mathieu Lavoie and Anna Liani) to the fore.
The staging of the concert (for which no single person is credited) makes innovative use of the architectural features of the church, including its magnificent organ.
The first 40 minutes of this 75-minute show had me completely enthralled thanks to the special effects as much as the music. It all begins like Quidam, with a waif-like young girl and her big red balloon.
Layers of laser light beams, fog machines and projections are brilliantly employed throughout. When the organ and choir are suddenly bathed in scarlet light at the back of the church, everyone turns to see. Then they swing back as images of acrobatic bodies appear like apparitions on the ceiling.
At one point, flocks of ghostly white birds swarm above. It’s like the Sistine Chapel gone cinematic via technology beyond Michaelangelo’s wildest dreams.
For the first 40 minutes, I was enthralled. After that it began to feel like a concert. One that served as a reminder of the limitations of invented-language lyrics.
Then conductor Frederic Chiasson began to lead the soloists in an a cappella version of the Beatles song Because from the show Love in Las Vegas. This is pure magic – as well a reminder of Cirque’s pop music stage when it teamed up with the Beatles, then Elvis and finally Michael Jackson.
Later, Love Me Tender, sung by the duet of Anna Liani and Dominic Dagenais (on acoustic guitar), served as a welcome break from the stream of mellifluous music and wordless warbling. Michael Jackson’s Earth Song, however, slipped by, as did several other lovely pieces, so soothing and similar.
This all served to increase anticipation for the big Alegria number we all knew was coming. It did not disappoint. Costumed acrobats from all of the shows mingled with the audience as everyone sang along.
Cirque du Soleil’s amazing sound, light and music show makes a most eloquent argument for the preservation of Montreal’s architectural treasures as it celebrates the company’s 30th anniversary.
{ SOURCE: Montreal Gazette | http://goo.gl/gJwZLV }
