For the opening of this new season and for my very first program, I am extremely happy to present to the Montreal public Stabat MATER and Beethoven’s 7th Symphony.

I invite you to first discover Stabat MATER - music by Pergolesi and choreography by Edward Clug -, a work that is both spiritual and poetic. In the show’s second part, let yourself be moved by Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, choreographed by Uwe Scholz; a piece of great complexity and stunning musicality. Stabat MATER is an emblematic work of the baroque and its poignant choreography is a pure masterpiece of meditation, self-reflection and hope. As for the 7th Symphony by Uwe Scholz, the second main work of the evening, it is also presented as a dance-concert, accompanie by solo voice and Les Grands Ballets Orchestra.

If Stabat MATER and the image associated with this show have been the subject of a certain controversy, pushing us to reflect on what it represents, for me, it evokes above all a feeling of suffering - referring to the crucifixion of Christ, certainly - but also the pain of a woman who has lost her child and, more generally, the unimaginable pain associated with the loss of a loved one; a feeling that, unfortunately, affects us all, one day or another. This universal suffering which, today, is socially set aside or even ignored, brings us back to death and to our own finitude - subjects that we sometimes prefer to avoid.

This is how I chose to present this program, shocking, marking, whether in the choreography, the performance of the dancers or in the music, to, first and foremost, touch the memory and heart of the public.