Nicole schreibt...

Montreal 2024

In terms of crazy I may have levelled up this year and this quick weekend dash across the Atlantic was probably a new high, but I do feel like a few good reasons made it all very worthwhile. Firstly my on-going disenchantment with London’s musical theatre scene (to say nothing of Germany or the Netherlands) combined with my re-awakened interest in the francophone scene following their revivals of old-timey favourites. Secondly having followed Cologne’s former Hot Duke Gian Marco Schiaretti to Marseille and convinced myself that he had the chops and charisma to finally make me get over my beloved Bruno in Notre Dame de Paris, I decided to keep an eye on the man (no, don’t anyone mention That Concert to me) and thus immediately perked when I found out that he along with fellow NDP alumni had decamped to Quebec for the summer for a short 20th anniversary tour of Don Juan. Now here was a performer and role match made in MT Heaven and on checking it out, I really liked the music (which I had not heard before, the show had flown under my radar the first time round), a mix of Spanish rhythms and typical French pop ballads. So, thirdly, with several weeks with nothing at all booked at home and the outlook just as dire, I thought, why the hell not go and see it for myself? Quebec and Montreal had never been of interest enough to plan a proper vacation there, but seemed a good enough idea for a weekend trip. And once again Belgium proved to be the key to happiness as I could book flights much cheaper through Brussels Airlines from Brussels than from Germany despite actually flying Air Canada and Lufthansa – go figure! And the flight was a “mere” seven hours, shorter than New York, which also helped with the decision – as did the fact that I could fly in the morning and arrive in Montreal early enough to catch the show on the same day. Immigration to Canada proved very easy with automated kiosks and transfer into Montreal was just as easy on the airport bus and metro to my hotel conveniently located between touristy Vieux Montréal and the Quartier des Spectacles, the Entertainment District.

After a longer nap break at the hotel, I first went to pick up my tickets, then went for a longer walk to the trendy Plateau Neighbourhood on a Canadian’s suggestion to try the world-famous Smoked Meat at Schwartz’, a nearly 100-year old Jewish Delicatessen – a truly lovely old-fashioned place and the meat was indeed absolutely to die (and walking far) for! Thus fortified I returned to Place des Arts, Montreals shiny huge Performing Arts Complex, where Don Juan had taken up the main Salle Wilfrid Pelletier while Montreal’s opera and ballet were on summer break (and if you’re here for the touristy stuff and not the show stuff, you can skip the lengthy review coming up). Don Juan is the brainchild of French singer/songwriter Félix Gray, that goes back to the initial source “Le Burlador de Sevilla” written by Tirso de Molina in 1616, which inspired Molière and of course Mozart, whose Don Giovanni is now the best-known adaptation of the yarn about the incurable womanizer Don Juan, whose hubris is his downfall. This version now, directed by Gilles Maheu (who’s also done Notre Dame de Paris) is a typical French spectacle with principal singers, a chorus of dancers, lavish sets and costumes and a gorgeous soundtrack. And perhaps the best-looking cast I’ve ever seen assembled on one stage.

Pretty Gian Marco confirmed he’s worth buying tickets for (and if someone could package up that ridiculous swagger and sell it to the sad incels around the world, they’d be rich), but also proved he’s not just being hired for looking amazing in tight pants as he managed the no small feat to make us care about the deeply troubled cynic who fills his empty life with “les femmes et le vin” and not just despise the sleazy idiot. They do make him work hard for his paycheck, too, with a good half dozen great songs to sing, some very sexy dancing and even fencing. And as every football fan watching international games knows, nobody does overdramatic suffering as beautifully as Italians, making for a very pretty death scene indeed. Local Quebecois Olivier Dion (no relation to her from Titanic) whom I had seen as D’Artagnan in a French adaption of the Three Musketeers yarn some years ago, had the comparatively easy job as Don Juan’s nice-boy-next-door friend Don Carlos, who comforts the heart-broken ladies his mate leaves in his wake and whose warnings are ignored. He, too, was in fine voice and not even the godawful mullet wig could ruin his fresh-faced good looks. Alyzée Lalande meanwhile seems to have cornered the market for playing vengeful pretty ladies – in NDP she plays bitchy Fleur-de-Lys who throws Esmeralda under the bus to have Phoebus for herself, here she plays Don Juan’s long-suffering wife Elvira, who throws her own husband under the bus when she’s fed up with his shit and rats him out to returning soldier Raphaël (dashing Philippe Berghella, the only one returning from the original cast) whose fianceé Maria has become Don Juan’s latest schmooze.

Quebecois singer Cindy Daniel (as the only one among the leads) got quite some flak from the reviewers, but frankly, I think it’s not her fault that her role is criminally underwritten and the big love story at the heart of the show is not really convincing. We first see the sculptress Maria in her atelier working on the statue of the soldier whom Don Juan had killed earlier, and her chiselling away at the horse’s ass apparently does a number on Don Juan who watches her and then apropos of nothing belts out his biggest power ballad how he’s finally discovered true love. Um, okay. Ladies, take note and learn sculpting, if you want to bag a (very useless) man. The leads were completed by gorgeous redhead Roxane Filion as gypsy fortune teller Isabel, a dead ringer for my favourite redhead Audrey Fleurot (and this one a woman one could feasibly lose their head over!), and Robert Marien, last seen as evil priest Frollo in NDP, in the fairly thankless role of Don Juan’s dad Don Luis. Extra mention must go to the amazing “Belle Andalouse” Monica Gomez Braojos, the flamenco soloist who danced up a gorgeous seductive storm in her big number of the same name that earns her free passage into Don Juan’s bed. The entire chorus was a flamenco ensemble imported wholesale from Madrid, augmented by three guys with Spanish guitars, delivering some fantastic big dance numbers that showed just how amazing flamenco can be when done right on this high level. All in all Don Juan was perhaps not as amazing as my all-time favourites NDP and Starmania, but still so much better than anything on offer in Germany or London now with gorgeous earworms like the syrupy duet “Changer”, the power ballad "Aimer" and the rousing party number “Du plaisir”, likely sung by every drunk Canadian Dad at the summer BBQ, the spectacular dancing, the gorgeous sets (now we know where that horse from the Olympic opening celebration in Paris swam to) and a proper big swashbuckling duel with rapiers in the rain on stage, not to mention the fantastic cast with everyone looking like they belonged in 17th century Spain and a show that felt like a respectful love letter to Spain and Spanish culture. Definitely worth the trek!

It took me a while (and perhaps a cold shower) to get to sleep and spent Saturday morning on a proper sightseeing exploration of Vieux Montréal. The French set up shop on an island at the confluence of the St.Lawrence River and the Petite Riviere in 1611, then went on to fund Montreal proper (as Ville-Marie) in 1642. Most of the sights are clustered together near the Vieux Port, the old port, and for the first time Canada truly felt more French than American. Here's the Town Hall by the Place Jacques Cartier, named for the first French explorer of the area and now a major (but lovely) tourist trap (below left) where I wound up having lunch later. Another interesting building was the Marché Bonsecours, the old covered main market, named for the church of Notre Dame de Bon Secours next door, one of the oldest churches in Montreal with some really interesting architecture facing the river.

As luck would have it there was a "18th century market" going on around the Place de Youville with the pretty Old Customs House and Pointe à Callière, where a museum has been built over the fondations of the first settlement. Several stalls were showcasing (and selling) old handicrafts from the period or sold historical drinks and foods with all of the stall holders dressed up in period costumes. There were also musicians playing old-style instruments and several "guards" walking around to keep an eye on things. For a history geek like me it was an absolutely wild and happy coincidence to suddenly find myself transported back in time, so I rather poked around the stalls than visit the museum.

There was one final big sight left to see, the Basilique Notre Dame de Montréal, which was wild for me, because she has been so familiar to me from the cover of Bruno Pelletier's christmas album for so many years and I had never really expected to see her with my own eyes someday. It truly is a very splendid church, dating from 1829 although somehow it looked younger to me. And as with Notre Dame de la Garde in Marseille I once more felt compelled to light a candle for Mary and thank her for protecting yet another crazy trip. With the sightseeing tour over, I returned to Place Jacques Cartier for a rather overpriced but at least extremely delicious Poutine, Canada's national dish that in its most basic form is just fries covered in gravy and cheese - true comfort food. I didn't really want to go all crazy and do the matinee of Don Juan, but just sitting in the hotel felt stupid too, so I ended up booking a boat tour through the Vieux Port to get a look at Montreal from the water. The boats departed from the very touristy Vieux Port that also offers a Ferris Wheel, a huge climbing area made to look like a pirate ship, a zipline and the original Big Tent of Montreal's world-famous Cirque du Soleil (which, as coincidence would have it, was showing "Kurios", which I had only just seen in Germany in spring!).

The one-hour boat tour took us past the cruise port (mercifully empty of ridiculous monsters and sheeple) to the Tour d'Horloge, the Sailor's Memorial clock tower, that was built in 1919 to mark the entrance to the Port and commemorate Canada's fallen soldiers in World War I, then past the two islands of Jean Drapeau Park, site of the 1967 World Expo, from which some objects like the Biosphere can still be seen from the water. It was quite interesting and also rather refreshing on what was a surprisingly hot summer day which I had not actually expected in Canada! Having successfully filled the day with interesting sightseeing and food, it was time for a longer break at the hotel to chill, before I returned to the Place des Arts for my second round with Don Juan - which would also be the last performance in Montreal, before the tour moved on to Quebec City. I had chosen Row Four for the first visit to be a bit further back and have a better overview on things, but now I was glad to be in the front row with a prime view on proceedings (and them tight pants).

Half the front row seemed occupied by Chinese fans who had seen this production in China in spring and my immediate neighbour turned out to be the superfan, whose excellent photos and short videos have been shared by the production itself and the performers on social media. She kept taking photos and videos throughout the show and as I basically had the same view, felt like she was doing it for me, too. So if you want to see some excellent footage, head over to Sophia Chen's Instagram! She had also brought flowers to distribute during the Encore and my heart went out to her, when she struggled to get them all handed over before the cast was done with the song! While her kind of fandom is a bit too intense for my liking (making me feel comparatively sane), I did appreciate her respectful quiet attitude which made a lovely difference from the performative “look at me!” hollering and whooping of so many fans elsewhere. We had a lovely exchange of messages the next day on Instagram and I just find it amazing that a German and a Chinese fan bonded over the shared love for a French musical in Canada!

I still had half a day to kill the next morning, so decided to walk through actual Downtown Montreal and the business district to the Mont Royal, the hill that ended up giving the city its name. The so-called Stairway to Heaven, a mix of several staircases and unpaved steep paths leads up to the summit and the gorgeous Belvedere Kondiaronk, which offers an amazing view all over Montreal, the St. Lawrence River and the surrounding area. Sadly it was rather hazy and the sun stood the wrong way, so my photos aren't as impressive as I might have hoped. Still, it was a great way to spend the last hours in this city, before a final pitstop at the Place des Arts, that had provided me with so much joy, for lunch and then back to the airport and home (ironically via Frankfurt to Brussels and then back to Germany). Was it mad to go all the way to Montreal just for two days for a show? Perhaps yes, but I wouldn’t have visited this lovely city (which is definitely worth seeing) otherwise and realizing that the Canadians’ reputation for being lovely people is well and truly deserved. And I do feel like I’ve been getting weeks of joyful anticipation out of this trip before I went, just as I had about last years’ to New York and that by focusing more on shows I truly love and on performers who have taken my fancy, I am ultimately making myself far happier than by doing/seeing things just because I feel I should or because they have become such routines. At least the next happy reunion is only three weeks away now and could we then have Casanova back in Italy please next year instead of somewhere stupid far away? Mille Grazie. In the meantime, here's the finale and bows from Don Juan as a memory of this amazing show: