Robert Marien as the interned Émile Nelligan and Katleen Fortin as the famous poet’s mother: The opera Nelligan – conceived in 1990 by Michel Tremblay and André Gagnon – is being revived in a new format on some stages in Quebec.
When the opera Nelligan was presented at the TNM in 2020, it was Marc Hervieux who interpreted the most famous Quebec poet. Now tenor Robert Marien (Notre-Dame de Paris, Les Misérables…) takes the torch to play the role of “this gagged genius”.
Courtesy of Stéphane Dumais
Robert Marien remembers recording a version of Le Vaisseau d’or with Broadway Montréal around the mid-1990s. For him, the music of André Gagnon, like the writings of Michel Tremblay, is part of our cultural heritage.
“It’s a universe that made me interested in living in it again. And then Nelligan’s whimsy is the feeling we often see in the theater, this happy sadness, this sweet melancholy,” explains the singer, who also serves as artistic director.
The actor states that the opera “Nelligan in Concert” is not a complete opera with costumes; rather, the most important pieces, the striking melodies and some scenes, which are played in a literary salon atmosphere.
“We break the fourth wall while remaining inhabited by the character we embody. These are excerpts from Nelligan’s poems or his biography that serve as presentation texts. This is the story of Nelligan’s life, respecting the point of view of Michel Tremblay. It is also a portrait of Quebec society on the part of Tremblay,” appreciates the 68-year-old actor, who hopes that the actors of the first cast of 2020 will “feed” him in this new role.
Rich tragedy
Actress and singer Katleen Fortin was part of the cast of actors for the 2020 show on TNM, whose tour was canceled due to the pandemic. Fortunately, the group took advantage of this forced stop to record the album Nelligan.
“It is work that is very close to my heart. I heard the first version with Louise Forestier, I was 15 and I liked it so much. “My ultimate dream was to one day sing The Lady in Black,” says the actor, who stars in Season 2 of the Portrait Robot series.
The actress wanted this role of the mother in great distress so much that she wrote to Marc Hervieux to express her great interest.
Courtesy of Patrick Jougla
“It’s a great pleasure to do it again. We know from real facts that the relationship between the son and the mother was very close. When Nelligan was hospitalized, she stopped playing the piano. It was like a part of her was dying,” says the artist, who sees beauty and richness in tragedy.
Katleen Fortin does not hesitate to describe the marriage of André Gagnon’s melodies with Michel Tremblay’s lyrics as a perfect union with the shadow of Nelligan and an open door to our collective DNA. “I am proud of the duration of this work, which is of great importance for my career as an actress, singer and person,” adds the woman, almost 50 years old, who is happy to look at this work again, since she has already done it loved at the age of 15.
Nelligan tells the tragic story of the poet Émile Nelligan, who was born in 1879 and died on November 18, 1941 after being interned in the Saint-Jean-de-Dieu psychiatric hospital in Montreal for more than 40 years. Baritone Dominique Côté plays the young Nelligan. The cast also includes Frayne McCarthy, Jean Maheux, Jean-François Poulin and Marie-Thérèse Fortin.
– The opera Nelligan in concert will be performed on October 15th in Terrebonne, October 19th in Gatineau, November 4th in Longueuil, November 8th in Sherbrooke, November 18th in Saint-Jérôme and 1stum December in Brossard.