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Gregory Charles weighs in with impressions of Mondial Choral 2008

par Benoit LeBlanc
Voir tous les articles de Benoit LeBlanc
Article mis en ligne le 11 juillet 2008 à 14:21
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Ann Nesby, the diva of American gospel music, was the featured performer at the closing event of Mondial Choral 2008, June 29. (Photo: Martin Alarie>

Sunday, June 29, saw the newest diva of American gospel music, Ann Nesby, crown the marathon of more than 200 performances of Mondial Choral 2008, whose first voices were heard nine days earlier. Founder and artistic director Gregory Charles, made public his report on this 4th annual world-class choral singing festival.

"People sometimes forget that the Mondial has the unique quality of being at one and the same time a festival and a congress that takes place on an island. The welcoming of these choirs from all over the world (Cuba, Congo, Japan, Austria) remains the essence and substance of Mondial," Charles confides.

On the morning of June 30, members of a Mexican choir were the last to say good-bye to their host families, putting the final touch to the activities surrounding Mondial Choral. In all, the public could have heard the stirring voices of about ten thousand choral singers coming from four continents.

Criticism and response

From among the great moments of this year's edition of the festival, one cannot overlook the epic L'Heptade which provided an opportunity to relive an evening of nostalgic reverie revolving around Harmonium's masterpiece of progressive rock. On June 23 the production, prepared to mark la Fête Nationale, was the main attraction of the day at the Centre de la Nature. More than 100,000 people were there to hear the likes of Dan Bigras, Boom Desjardins, Marc Déry, Marco Calliari, Yann Perreau and Gregory Charles, accompanied by the Laval Symphony Orchestra and the Grand Choeur du Mondial.

"Some people found the production inappropriate. I accept the criticism. I didn't do a good job of assessing the risk. In a perfect world, the show would have been a great closing event. But it's important to grasp the entire scope of the production. It was four times more imposing than anything which had ever been done in Laval for la Saint-Jean-Baptiste. We put on stage the never-before-seen and the never-before heard. If we don't do this (kind of thing), we are neglecting a part of our history," the artistic director of Mondial Choral enthusiastically explained.

Unity in diversity

At Salle André-Mathieu, the presentation of Les Années Jeunesse gave people the opportunity to reconnect with the 1960s.

"The production doesn't end there. It was one of the main themes of 2008, a return to the 1960s and 1970s, times when people had a taste for celebrating and for singing. "We forget that Happy Days topped all hit lists throughout 1966," Gregory Charles recalls, also citing the two musical Masses celebrated at Mondial Choral 2008: British composer Will Todd's North American debut of Mass in Blue, and the 'gogo' Mass at which Cardinal Jean-Paul Turcotte officiated, with 2000 people in attendance.

In the same vein must be added the Nathalie Choquette concert which delved into childhood memories through Blue Mammy a superb blend of negro spiritual, jazz and ragtime. And of course, how can anyone forget the performances of the world-renowned Vienna Boys Choir, which enjoyed a great resurgence of popularity in the 60s and 70s.

Photo:AngNes

(Photo: Martin Alarie>

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