As part of the celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of Jean Paul Riopelle’s birth, Riopelle symphonique takes audiences on a stunning multimedia odyssey through the artist’s works and inspirations. Set to the original music of Serge Fiori and Blair Thomson, the concert features the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Chœur des Petits Chanteurs de Laval and the Temps Fort choir under conductor Adam Johnson.
Riopelle symphonique combines original musical composition with discovery as we revisit the works that marked the artist’s illustrious career. Together, the musical creation and visual environments evoke key periods in the artist’s life, from his early experimentations in Montréal to the closing chapter of his career—a time marked by his return to ‘the source’ (Isle-aux-Grues)—by way of post-war France, his encounters with Indigenous peoples and his deep connection with the Far North.
Visual concept and staging are by Marcella Grimaux (Noisy Head) under artistic director Nicolas Lemieux. An ingenious assembly of LED screens, whose varied sizes and configurations nod to the diverse formats of the master’s paintings, lets audiences both witness and be part of Riopelle’s creative gestures and inexhaustible capacity for reinvention.
Jean Paul Riopelle, Cap au nord, 1977
Oil on canvas, 200 x 301 cm
Collection of Huguette Vachon
© Estate of Jean Paul Riopelle / SOCAN (2022)
