Festival Lanaudière - music and so much more

Festival performers (photo: Baptiste Grison)

Kristine Berey

Montrealers must count their cultural blessings. Just as the greatly anticipated Jazz Fest winds down, another international music festival dedicated to classical music opens, less than an hour away from the city.

Now celebrating its 31st season, the Festival Lanaudière has presented indoor and outdoor concerts performed by international artists in its spectacular Amphitheatre and beautiful heritage churches, some of which date back to the 17th century. Though the festival’s program has blossomed from eight concerts in 1977 to 26 this July, the organizers’ vision – to create “a place where a large audience can listen to beautiful music performed by the greatest musicians” – remains intact.

This year an array of activities are geared toward young people making the festival an ideal opportunity for families to spend time together and build a lasting love of music in their youngest members.

The festival begins Saturday, July 5 with a resounding rendition of Carmina Burana, Carl Orff’s greatest masterpiece that grandchildren will recognize as the unmistakable inspiration for the soundtrack of the video game Final Fantasy I. The score calls for four choirs and a symphony orchestra – 200 musicians performing together.

Opera lovers won’t want to miss the 150th anniversary of Puccini’s birth, which the festival will honour with performances of his great arias, from La Boheme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot on Friday, July 11.

Fledgling ornithologists will enjoy learning that the great composer Olivier Messiaen loved birds so much that he actually recorded their songs and wove them into his music. All the music performed on Saturday, July 12 will be devoted to birds, and will include Messiaen’s Oiseaux exotiques, Stravinsky’s Firebird, and Saint-Saens’ Le rossignol et la rose. Afternoon activities are free and will include a sound installation by Oswaldo Macia, an open rehearsal of the night’s concert with commentary, and an onsite exhibition of birds of prey. The evening concert will be accompanied by the winning entries in the bird photo contest organized by the Festival and the Regroupement QuebecOiseaux.

Little astronomers can be fascinated by projections of NASA photos on a giant screen on Friday, July 18, accompanied by Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite The Planets, with Jean-Marie Zeitouni conducting the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal.

Starting Sunday, July 6, outdoor concerts for the whole family include the famous London vocal quartet Cantabile, swing from the 40s by The Easy Answers, and Romeo and Juliet in the passionate universe of the Tango.

On Saturday, July 19, a day declared by Festival Artistic Ambassador Alain Lefèvre as “a day of piano and youth,” everyone under 25 will be admitted for free to hear Lefèvre and his confrères push the limits of piano playing in performances of concertos for two, three, and four pianos with eight virtuosos taking part. To engage the “pianistically reluctant” free hot dogs will be served, compliments of Maple Lodge Farms.

Other treats include tourist outings along the St. Lawrence, featuring a boat trip to the Lac-Saint-Pierre Archipelago, a unique nature reserve recognized as a biosphere by UNESCO on Sunday, July 7, and a dinner cruise on Friday, July 11, going from Montreal’s Old Port to the pier in Saint-Sulpice, where guests will board a luxury coach for the Amphitheatre.

For those who don’t want to drive, a shuttle service to the Amphitheatre, the Festival Express, leaves from downtown Montreal.

Info: 450-759-7636 or lanaudiere.org