By Richard Burnett for Curtains Up! @bugsburnett
Everyone knew they were witnessing a historic concert when 36-year-old Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra, hailed by The New York Times as the successor to Pavarotti, took the stage at L’Opéra de Montréal’s Signature Event back in 2004. Licitra’s first-ever concert in Canada was made more memorable when he introduced young Montreal soprano Marie-Josée Lord onstage to sing a duet.
The sold-out audience went nuts and Lord just about had a nervous breakdown. “I was so nervous I was sick to my stomach,” Lord told me afterwards. “The OdM choose a young up-and-comer each year and I said, ‘Yeah!’ But when I got there I was like, ‘Man, this guy sings at the Met and has a big contract with Sony.’ Backstage I told myself to cool down and Salvatore was a treasure. He’s a simple guy and made me comfortable.”
Tragically, Licitra died in September 2011 after crashing his scooter into a wall in Donnalucata, Sicily.
But that same year Marie-Josée Lord released her eponymous 12-track debut album (recorded with Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain) which sold over 30,000 copies, and then she sold-out Theatre Maisonneuve at Place des Arts for the first time.
Lord – among the privileged few chosen to compete in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2005 competition – returns to Theatre Maisonneuve for her new solo Yo soy María concert on February 25, when she and her 8-piece band will perform Spanish, Latin and Portuguese melodies, as part of the MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE winter festival.
After her Montreal homecoming show, Lord then jets to America and Germany for a series of concerts. But I still remember the young woman I met back in 2004, still soaring from her performance with Salvatore Licitra.
“One day I want to be famous and be one of the best singers in the world,” Marie-Josée told me.
Well, that day is upon us.
Marie-Josée Lord performs her new solo show Yo soy María at Theatre Maisonneuve on February 25 at 8 pm. Click here for more info and tickets. Click here for the official MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE website, and here for Marie-Josée Lord’s official website.
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Photo courtesy MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE
