Nancy Berman studied piano at York University and Musicology at McGill University, where she received her PhD in 2002. She currently teaches Music Literature in Montreal, Canada, and contributes articles and reviews on music and dance to various online sites.
Wayne McGregor astounds with his choreographic virtuosity, entrancing soundtrack and mesmerizing set design in FAR: this postmodern look at the body creates a veritable lexicon of movement. At Théâtre Maisonneuve, Montréal.
On 31 October, 1 and 2 November, the Compagnie Marie Chouinard presented Henri Michaux: Mouvements and Gymnopedies at the Théâtre Maisonneuve. Despite their differences, both works potently express what is fundamentally primal, visceral, and elemental in the human condition.
At the beginning of Lucy Guerin’s work Weather, running from 22-26 October at the Cinquième Salle at Place des Arts in Montréal, it takes a few moments to realize that it’s the solo dancer himself who is creating the sound of the wind. As the whispers gradually crescendo to gales, his body twists and turns and bends, both creating and reacting to the force of nature.
Saturday night’s performance of Handel’s oratorio Theodora at La Maison Symphonique in Montréal was magnificent, probably the best concert I’ve seen this season. Les Violons du Roy, La Chapelle de Québec, as well as a handful of soloists from Québec and England, all under the masterful direction of Bernard Labadie, brought this somewhat obscure work vividly to life.
The lights come up on a stage presided over by three planets watching silently from above. Kiya Tabassian, founder of the musical group Constantinople, enters slowly from the left, with his setar (a type of Persian lute), while Roger Sinha, artistic director and choreographer of Sinha Danse, enters from the right.
If you like your Beethoven clean, precise and streamlined, you should go hear Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra perform the First and Seventh Symphonies, along with the Berg Violin Concerto and Beethoven’s Wellington’s Victory at the Maison Symphonique.
First, a warning: if you are feeling at all emotionally fragile, do not go see T.R.A.S.H. this week at la Cinqième Salle at Place des Arts, Montreal. If, however, you consider your sanity unshakeable, don’t miss it... but don’t be surprised if you leave emotionally spent.Combining dance, theatre, and live original music, T.R.A.S.H. grew out of the alternative punk rock scene in Tilburg, Holland.
With the recent bout of Siberian weather in Montreal, last night’s evening of Russian music at the Maison Symphonique felt positively balmy. Under the baton of Russian conductor Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, and featuring his wife Viktoria Postnikova on piano, the OSM’s performance of two works by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky brought a little warmth to our snow-frozen city.
Communication – its overabundance, limitations, annoyances and impossibilities – is the unifying theme of HomoBLABLAtus, the new production of La Otra Orilla (The Other Shore) currently being staged at Cinquième Salle at Montréal’s Place des Arts.
Christmastime comes with its musical traditions, from sing-along Messiahs to Christmas carols to Mariah Carey singing “All I Want for Christmas is You”. And there’s no denying that shouting any of the above at the top of your lungs will immediately get you into the Christmas spirit.
