2013/08/15

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  Stade olympique – 2013.08.14
  Scènes de Montréal – Montreal Scenes
  

  Fête Nationale des Acadiens

  Today August 15 is the Acadians’ Fête Nationale. This celebration dates back to the 1880s. I’ve already posted in the past about this, on or around this date so I’ll just leave it there, especially that my old posts from Xanga are now in my WordPress.

  

  Symphonic evening

  For many years (dating from the times of Charles Dutoit), the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (MSO) has been giving outdoor concerts in some parks in the summer. Last year, and part of efforts to revitalize the surroundings of the Olymic Stadium, they gave the concert on its esplanade. Eigthteen thousand showed up, I was told. This year, they did it again. And contrary to those park concerts with a reduced orchestra, this time it was with the full orchestra plus ten pianos for the last number, a specially arranged for this occasion rendering of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. There was no place on the stage for ten grand pianos so they used some kind of acoustic/electronic piano which I don’t remember more about (read in some news article).

  Directing, Kent Nagano, whose love affair with Montreal and vice-versa is still very much alive. He is from California, for remembrance, which explains many things. I’ve heard him say once (my words) that one of the things he liked a lot here is the possibility to explore new forms, get out of the beaten paths of traditional classical music concerts.

  For many years, the top of the stadium tower has been lighted. This year, they added lighting in the roof’s niche. That’s where the retractable roof would be stored when retracted. It currently isn’t for a bunch of reasons I don’t want to get into. For now, that lighting is in Québec’s colors, that is blue combined with the white of the top. Except… except this week when alternatively each day the niche will sport the colors of the Gay Flag (it’s Gay Pride week). Hey, this is Montreal, not Moscow. Gays are welcome here. And exception to the exception, last night it was lighted in purple because it is, I learned, the color of the MSO. So was the esplanade where poles of LED lights were projecting a purple lightning on the crowd, except during Rhapsody in Blue when it became, well yes, blue.

  As a curtain call, Montreal tenor Marc Hervieux, who sang during the concert all the while also being its master of ceremonies, asked the crowd to join him, the orchestra, and the ten pianists in singing Let It Be. It was a splendid way to end this concert.

  Oh, and did I mention? Maybe because of the weather, 30,000 Montrealers showed up. They were not expecting that much. A large number of them had no view at all of the stage but there were many loudspeakers on the site so hearing the music was no problem. The esplanade is a series of arc shaped areas and at different levels. I was on a ramp and I had a nice view of the flow of people coming out of the metro station, a flow that was never-ending until around 20h00, a full half-hour after the scheduled concert start time.

  On my arrival at 19:25: the stage, and most of the crowd, was on the left, out of the frame (see second pic). During the concert I was on that ramp about where is that wooden frame thing on the left. It’s an ‘urban garden’ experiment that’s why there’s a (temporary?) crowd containing fence. There was a camera crane so I guess the concert was filmed. I didn’t see anything of the stage except its upper top, but there was plenty of action to watch on the grass area below. I’ll say more about this in an update or the next post.

  

  At 19:34, from the ramp I was on. The overflow of the crowd starts to fill up the grass area below me. It was eventually completely full up to the metro.

  

  During the Rhapsody in Blue, I took many shots which turned out as if the site was bathing in purple. Maybe it was, and it’s my eyes that are tired, who knows! But when I had one of those LED lamp posts right in front of me, it squarely turned the stadium into some kind of UFO.

  

  

  

  • 22:45
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