By Richard Burnett for Curtains Up
Canada’s largest classical music festival, the Festival de Lanaudière in Joliette, isn’t just about classical music. The internationally-famed music festival will also present jazz and gospel music during their 38th annual edition, as well as a much-anticipated blockbuster concert by the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.
With Grammy-winning Maestro Kent Nagano at the helm, the OSM will celebrate the music of Beethoven at an August 1 concert that will take place in the festival’s breathtaking outdoor Fernand Lindsay Amphitheatre.
“Montréal’s Salle Wilfred-Pelletier seats 3,000 and the Maison Symphonique seats 2,000, so when you see a concert here packed with 6,000 people, the atmosphere and energy is electric,” says Festival de Lanaudière marketing director Michel Pelletier.
The entire Fernand Lindsay Amphitheatre can seat up to 8,000 people and has outstanding acoustics.
Other highlights are the July 17 screening – also under the stars in the amphitheatre – of the iconic 1925 film The Phantom of the Opera starring Lon Chaney, with the film score performed by a live orchestra; Montreal’s much-loved Jireh Gospel Choir (July 19 at 2 p.m.); and renowned Montreal soprano Marie-Josée Lord, who will sing a selection of songs by such composers as Rossini, Verdi and Gershwin with the festival orchestra and choir (July 25 at 7:30 p.m.).
But the stars are not just on the stage, they also sparkle up in the night sky. It is all quite spectacular to take it in, sitting in the festival’s outdoor Fernand-Lindsay Amphitheatre. A vast lawn filled with concertgoers – who bring lawn chairs, blankets and picnic baskets – spreads out before the amphitheatre which was built some 25 years ago, and which also features covered seating for 2,000.
There is also an outdoor dining area where light foods and drinks can be purchased. Best of all, if you decide you want to enjoy a few drinks under the stars, there is a 45-minute Festival Express shuttle bus service ($20 + TX return) that departs at 5 p.m. every Friday and Saturday (except July 24) from the Info-Tourist Centre on Peel St. in downtown Montreal to the Amphitheatre, with a stop near the Radisson Metro station at 5:30 p.m.
Festival de Lanaudière continues to Aug. 2. Lanaudière box office, info and shuttle bus reservations: 1-800-561-4343 or www.lanaudiere.org.
