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City Guide - Montreal - Culture | ||
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Culture Montreal is well represented in all the traditional manifestations of high culture - symphony, opera and ballet - but truly stands out in experimental theatre and contemporary dance. One of its most notable exports is the internationally acclaimed Cirque du Soleil (tel: (514) 722 2324 or (800) 678 2119; web site: www.cirquedusoleil.com), who still occasionally perform in Montreal. Innovation in the arts is not all that new in the city - in the first half of the twentieth century it was one of the hottest places for jazz. Oscar Peterson was born here, and Charlie Biddle still runs a jazz club. Place-des-Arts - a complex of performance halls surrounding a large plaza and linnked by an underground concourse - makes up the city's cultural heart and is home to all of Montreal's major performing arts companies. One of the best times to visit is during one of the innumerable festivals, especially in the summer when it seems that everyone is out on the streets. The epicentre of the big festivals is the large plaza at place-des-Arts, which is filled with people during the free outdoor shows. One of the best sources of information is Info Arts Bell at place-des-Arts, 175 rue Ste-Catherine West (tel: (514) 790 2787; web site: www.infoarts.net). There are listings in the free alternative weeklies, The Mirror (web site: www.montrealmirror.com) and Hour (web site: www.afterhour.com), as well as Montreal's daily newspaper, The Gazette (web site: www.montrealgazette.com). Tickets for most cultural events can be purchased from Admission outlets (tel: (514) 790 1245 or (800) 361 4595; web site: www.admission.com), as well as from the venue itself. Music: The Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (tel: (514) 842 9951; web site: www.osm.ca) is one of the top performance groups in North America. They can be seen at place-des-Arts and offer summer concerts at the Basilique Notre-Dame. L'Opéra de Montréal (tel: (514) 985 2258; web site: www.operademontreal.qc.ca) is the city's leading opera company. They, too, perform at place-des-Arts, as do the chamber groups I Musici de Montréal (tel: (514) 982 6038; web site: www.imusici.com) and those organised by the Pro Musica society (tel: (514) 845 0532; web site: www.promusica.qc.ca). Theatre: Theatre is dominated by French-language productions, but there are occasional runs of large Broadway shows, and summer theatre in the Eastern Townships is popular, light-hearted fare, shown at The Piggery Theatre, in North Hatley (tel: (819) 842 2431) and Théâtre Lac Brome, in Knowlton (tel: (450) 242 2270). The city's mainstay English-language company is the Centaur Theatre, 453 rue St-François-Xavier (tel: (514) 288 3161; web site: www.centaurtheatre.com), with everything from Canadian drama to Broadway hits. Unique to the city are the Yiddish Theatre productions at the Saidye Bronfman Centre, 5170 chemin de la Côte-Ste-Catherine (tel: (514) 739 2301; web site: www.thesaidye.org), which also stages a number of English-language plays a year. The most established of the French-language theatres are the Théâtre du Rideau Vert, 4664 rue St-Denis (tel: (514) 844 1793), Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, 84 rue Ste-Catherine West (tel: (514) 866 8668; web site: www.tnm.qc.ca), and Théâtre Jean-Duceppe, place-des-Arts (tel: (514) 288 5034). Dance: The city's chief ballet company is Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal (tel: (514) 849 0269; web site: www.grandsballets.qc.ca) who perform at place-des-Arts. The prestigious, biennial Festival International de Nouveau Danse is the best time to see contemporary dance every other autumn (next in 2001). In addition, the Festival des Arts de St-Sauveur (web site: www.artssaintsauveur.com) showcases international ballet companies in the Laurentians in late July. Film: There are plenty of English-language screens in the city, mostly in the downtown area. The largest and newest is the Paramount Montreal, 977 rue Ste-Catherine West (tel: (514) 866 0111). Ex-Centris, 3536 boulevard St-Laurent (tel: (514) 847 3536; web site: www.ex-centris.com), is the new high-tech rep cinema. Cinéma du Parc, 3575 avenue du Parc (tel: (514) 281 1900) offers independent and second-run films. Montreal is one of Canada's largest film production centres and a number of Hollywood films have been shot here, including Snake Eyes (1998), Battlefield Earth (2000) and More Tales of the City (1998). A much better picture of the city can be had from such films as Jésus de Montréal (1989), The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974) and the charming Léolo (1992). The World Film Festival (web site: www.ffm-montreal.org) is only one of many festivals, including celebrations of cultures from Jewish to First Nations, new digital media and the gay and lesbian image&nation (web site: www.image-nation.org). Cultural events: The largest of the city's many festivals is the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal (web site: www.montrealjazzfest.com), with an estimated 1.5 million attendees (including 100,000 for the big free outdoor show). It is followed by the Festival International Nuits d'Afrique (web site: http://festnuitafric.com) and Les FrancoFolies de Montréal (web site: www.francofolies.com), for those who prefer African or French music to jazz, and the Just for Laughs Festival (web site: www.hahaha.com) for those who prefer comedy to music. Other big events include the Benson and Hedges International (a ten-night fireworks competition) and the cultural week that has sprung up around the huge gay circuit party, the Black & Blue Festival (web site: www.bbcm.org). Literary Notes Montreal has a rich literary history in both French and English poetry, drama and fiction. A number of authors have captured the day-to-day realities of life in the city, including David Fennario, whose play Balconville (1979) explores the interaction between French and English in the working-class neighbourhood of Pointe St-Charles. Gabrielle Roy's Tin Flute (1947) chronicles a family's lives in nearby St-Henri. The Plateau Mont-Royal is the setting for the novelist and playwright Michel Tremblay's The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant (1978) and also for the earlier works of Mordecai Richler: The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959) and St Urbain's Horseman (1971). The French-English divide was captured by Hugh MacLennan in Two Solitudes (1945), and the former McGill professor's The Watch That Ends the Night (1959) is a wonderfully poignant novel set in Montreal. Although better known for his music, Leonard Cohen chronicles a young man's coming of age in Montreal in his first novel, The Favourite Game (1963). |