Pascal Henrard - December 27, 2017

NeoArctic: A Pro-Environmental Musical and Visual Manifesto

The opera NeoArctic, presented in Montreal as part of the Printemps nordique event at the Place des Arts, is a unique, contemporary show that has global warming and environmental upheavals as a backdrop.

For 30 years, the Danish company Hotel Pro Forma has toured the world with a diverse array of shows that mix genres and disciplines. Each of these hybrid productions from this truly international laboratory is the result of a collaborative effort where the visual and digital arts meet music, set design, literature, film, and video.

Created in Copenhagen by artist Kirsten Dehlholm, Hotel Pro Forma’s performances and creations interrogate the state of the world and the planet’s future. In this vein, NeoArctic is, over the course of 12 tableaux, a striking illustration of the changes in our environment.

A new genre of opera and a musical performance with evocative power, NeoArctic is divided into 12 songs, 12 singers, 12 sets and 12 land- and soundscapes. Over the course of the tableaux, the artists contemplate the climate change caused by humans and industrial development. Nevertheless, adorned by the electronic music of the famous director and British producer Andy Stott and young composer Krists Auznieks, the breathtaking scenography creates a poetic, luminous, hopeful vision that emerges from the darkness.

Besides Stott and Auznieks, the Opera NeoArctic brings the talents of set designer and artistic director Kirsten Dehlholm and the voices of the Latvian Radio Choir singers to the texts of Icelandic poet and novelist Sjón.

The choir sings, shouts or whispers the words of a haunting, repetitive story. At times, beautiful melodies catch your ear, fade away and then return. The stage is a perpetually changing landscape with a luminous, colourful backdrop where moving images are projected.

The thought-provoking NeoArctic enchants, pleases and dazzles.

You can see NeoArctic on April 14, 2018, at the Théâtre Maisonneuve. In English only.