Festival Classica 2022: from Monteverdi to Morricone

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From May 27 to June 19, Festival Classica presents its 12th edition themed “Monteverdi to Morricone.” Twenty-two concerts will be presented in Saint-Lambert as well as the cities of Varennes, Mirabel, Boucherville and Longueuil.

“The program for the 2022 edition is devoted mainly to Italian music and pays tribute to illustrious Italian composers since the Renaissance,” says Marc Boucher, General Manager and Artistic Director. He hopes that the public will be there to celebrate the festival’s return to live performances featuring the cream of Quebec musicians. “That’s the great hope of the moment.” He underlines Festival Classica’s mission which is to present classical music from all eras—from early to modern, as well as music of the current moment—and always in formats aimed to attract all categories of the public. It is in this spirit that this edition has been conceived, which invites us on a musical journey that goes from Claudio Monteverdi, one of Italy’s most illustrious composers of the Renaissance and baroque eras, to the legendary Ennio Morricone who made an indelible mark on the history of film music in the 20th century.

Participating artists and orchestras include Marie Nadeau-Tremblay, Myriam Leblanc, Antonio Figueroa, Hugo Laporte, Valérie Milot, Gino Quilico, Orchestre de l’Agora, Arion Orchestre Baroque, Ensemble Caprice, Ensemble vocal Arts-Québec, Ensemble Mirabilia, Montérégie Chamber Orchestra, Antoine Bélanger, Magali Simard-Galdès, Florence Bourget, Edna Stern, Matthias Maute, Sophie Larivière, Vincent Lauzer, Tristan Best, Antoine Malette-Chénier, Hank Knox , Marianne Lambert, Dominic Boulianne, Marc Djokic, Caroline Gélinas, Nils Brown, Elvira Misbakhova, Chloé Dominguez, Antoine Bareil, Florence Malgoire, Elinor Frey, Luc Beauséjour, Agnès Langlois, Jean-Philippe Sylvestre, early music ensemble Les Idées heureuses and Les Jardins Chorégraphiques, a company specializing in 16th- to 18th-century dance.

Several major works are scheduled: five settings of the “Stabat Mater” including those by Pergolesi, Vivaldi and Scarlatti; Vespers for the Blessed Virgin and motets by Monteverdi; Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle.

Closing in style

To close the festival, two concerts will be held in the Co-cathedral of St. Anthony of Padua in Longueuil. On Friday, June 17, Orchestre symphonique de Longueuil and Florence K, under the direction of Alexandre Da Costa, invite us to a stroll through the mythical film soundtracks by the great composer Ennio Morricone, notably his scores for Once Upon a Time in the West, Cinema Paradiso and The Mission.

On Sunday, June 19, Festival Classica welcomes internationally renowned contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux for the first time. She will perform Rossini’s cantata, Giovanna d’Arco (Joan of Arc) while Élisabeth Pion and Stéphane Tétreault take audiences on a journey through the music of early 20th- century composer, Alfredo Casella. They will be accompanied by Orchestre symphonique de Laval under the direction of Alain Trudel.