The heroes of the Laval Symphony Orchestra (OSL)

Entitled Heroes, the concert was inspired by the tragic destinies of bigger-than-life figures. In this vein, the OSL invited soprano Nathalie Paulin to sing one of the more troubling works of Quebec composer Claude Vivier, his 1980 Lonely Child.

For Paulin, this will be a first public performance of a Vivier work. "It's a complex and moving work. We detect the profound loneliness of the orphan child who spent his whole life searching for his parents. There's also a touch of sensuality near the end of the piece," confided Nathalie Paulin in a telephone conversation.

"Claude Vivier's music is superb as it gives different shades of colour to words, even though the rhythm is technically difficult. There's this part of the work, right around the middle, where a child breaks into babbling, and we can easily conclude that he's inventing his own language. We share in the attempt of a man who wants to reveal all of his life's complexities in one piece of work," she specifies.

In a stellar career, Nathalie Paulin has won numerous awards, among which are the 2005 Dora-Mavor Moore Prize in Exceptional Opera Performance, the Dvorak Prize, as well as numerous acknowledgements from the George London Foundation of New York, the Toronto Young Mozart Singers Competition, and the Music Contest of Canada. She has performed in most of the Opera Houses of North America.

"Ravel's style touches me deeply as it brings me to what I love about French melodies. He can sometimes be light-hearted, even laughable, with music that's full of mischief, but with an avowed seriousness at other times.

Of note, the OSL will welcome Espace musique, Radio Canada's music station. The concert will be recorded and later broadcast on Radio Canada's classical music series hosted by Martio Paquet, Mondays to Thursdays, at 8:00 pm.