{"id":43625,"date":"2017-03-12T20:00:49","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T00:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=43625"},"modified":"2017-03-12T20:07:50","modified_gmt":"2017-03-13T00:07:50","slug":"scrutiny-another-brick-in-the-wall-opera-an-immersive-ride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/03\/12\/scrutiny-another-brick-in-the-wall-opera-an-immersive-ride\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Another Brick in the Wall Opera An Immersive Ride"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_43629\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43629\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-43629\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/03\/Another_Brick_In_The_Wall_-_Opera_3_\u00a9Yves_Renaud.jpg\" alt=\"Another Brick In The Wall - Opera (Photo: Yves Renaud)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"564\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/03\/Another_Brick_In_The_Wall_-_Opera_3_\u00a9Yves_Renaud.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/03\/Another_Brick_In_The_Wall_-_Opera_3_\u00a9Yves_Renaud-300x165.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/03\/Another_Brick_In_The_Wall_-_Opera_3_\u00a9Yves_Renaud-768x423.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-43629\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Another Brick In The Wall &#8211; Opera (Photo: Yves Renaud)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>Another Brick in the Wall. Op\u00e9ra de Montr\u00e9al and Orchestre M\u00e9tropolitain. Dominic Champagne (director), Julien Bilodeau (composer), Alain Trudel (conductor), Roger Waters (original lyrics and music). At Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. March 11-27.<\/h3>\n<p>This is a milestone year across Canada: it is Montreal\u2019s 375<span style=\"font-size: 13.3333px;\">th<\/span> birthday and also marks the 40<span style=\"font-size: 13.3333px;\">th<\/span> year of its infamous \u201cspitting incident\u201d: in 1977, Roger Waters was playing with Pink Floyd to a particularly unruly crowd at the Olympic Stadium. At one point, a fan clambered onto the stage, whom Waters then spat on. Following the incident, a far-flung idea came to Waters: erecting a partition on stage to separate performers from the audience. This inspired the band\u2019s ensuing album, <em>The Wall<\/em>, and its success allowed Waters to rebound from the Montreal concert\u2019s negative PR.<\/p>\n<p>Op\u00e9ra de Montr\u00e9al\u2019s <em>Another Brick in the Wall<\/em> is a commemoration of this event, re-presented as a classical rock opera. Featuring an all-Canadian cast, director Dominic Champagne fashioned its storyline to encompass the realities of 2017: it is by no means a feel-good night out; rather, it shines a glaring light on a society which grapples with conflicting models of openness to the world.<\/p>\n<p>The opera shadows Waters\u2019s early life, embodied in Pink and his resilience to obstacles thrown his way: from his father\u2019s death in the war, to a coddling mother who stifles Pink\u2019s attempts at independent thought, to public humiliation rites by his teacher at school, to a relationship that sours, Pink finally caves into his insecurities and builds a wall between his mind and the real world. Within its confines, he sits in a position of power, but this quickly gets out of hand as he persecutes all who do not align with his prototype for humankind.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4TBhTGIuPpU?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>Floyd fans will get their dose of \u201cWe don\u2019t need no education\u201d and \u201cI have seen the writing on the wall\u201d reimagined for orchestra and choir. For all its associations with the original rock hit, composer Julien Bilodeau adopted a style that is easier on the eardrums and sits within the range of operatic performance. The music sounds decidedly modern, marrying minimalist techniques with classical devices; there are few overt classical music-style excerpts until the lush a cappella choir draws the production to a close. Throughout the journey, conductor Alain Trudel was a beacon of clarity for the orchestra, guiding them through the various musical currents. Soprano France Bellemare was emotionally invested in her portrayal of the mother, and her lush characterization was a lifebuoy for audiences\u2019 empathy in an overwhelmingly coldblooded opera.<\/p>\n<p>A noted baritone on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond, \u00c9tienne Dupuis was convincing in the title role and did an admirable job in carrying the weight of the opera\u2019s storyline on his shoulders. Caroline Bleau added bite to Pink\u2019s story as his wife, with such quips as \u201cHey there, out there, sitting out there on your own, sitting naked by the phone, will you touch me?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s no surprise that the opera\u2019s visual effects were avant-garde: the centerpiece of much of the night was two immense movable panels upon which computer-generated backdrops were projected. It was a frenzied psychedelic display, while strobe lights scanned the audience, sparing nobody during Pink\u2019s moments of unsettling self-questioning. With fluid scene transitions and sparse props on stage, <em>Another Brick<\/em> challenges conventions of lush, static set design that classical operagoers are accustomed to. In many ways, the writing was on the wall for Pink\u2019s dark descent.<\/p>\n<p>As uncomfortable as the journey is for Pink, it is an immersive ride for the audience into a perverted universe. For out-of-towners, it\u2019s a good production to check out alongside other birthday festivities taking place this winter in Montreal.<\/p>\n<h3>For more REVIEWS, click <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.musicaltoronto.org\/category\/scrutiny\/\"><u>HERE<\/u><\/a><\/span>.<\/h3>\n<h3><b><i>#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Op\u00e9ra de Montr\u00e9al\u2019s Another Brick in the Wall repacked as a classical rock opera works surprisingly well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":43629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,43,52,63],"tags":[9492,2498,2521],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/03\/Another_Brick_In_The_Wall_-_Opera_3_\u00a9Yves_Renaud.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-blD","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43625"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43634,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43625\/revisions\/43634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43625"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=43625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}