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Arts Commons is gearing up its BD&P World Stage programming for fall, leading off with a live orchestra screening of a 20-year-old classic.
The Triplets of Belleville: 20th Anniversary Film in Concert will be shown in the Jack Singer Concert Hall on Nov. 2 at 7:30 p.m. The critically acclaimed animated movie is accompanied by a live orchestra conducted by the original composer himself, Montreal-born Benoît Charest.
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The Triplets of Belleville premiered in 2003 and immediately gained a following for its irreverent tone, stylized animation, and comedic premise. Paired with a rollicking score, the absurdist comedy earned two Academy Award nominations, a Bafta nomination, and a Grammy nomination, and won two Toronto Film Critics Association Awards for Best Canadian Film and Best Animated Film, among other awards.
The story follows Madame Souza and her cycling enthusiast grandson, Champion. Through a series of bizarre events, Madame Souza, and her faithful companion Bruno the dog, find themselves on a transatlantic journey to rescue her wayward grandson – encountering mobsters, grenade-lobbing elderly women, and a cast of other unexpected, quirky characters along the way.
Composer Charest said the challenge is to play the score to the screening film flawlessly. “It’s closer to a classical performance than a rock or jazz performance, where the structure and the content of the concert would evolve in different ways from one night to the other. I have to keep the troops on their toes!”
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Following this event, BD&P World Stage will feature a holiday concert with The Barra MacNeils: An East Coast Christmas. The New Year brings Australian contemporary circus company Circa and their new show Humans 2.0, followed by Cuba’s contemporary dance company, Malpaso with Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra. The season rounds out with DakhaBrakha, a multi-award winning Ukrainian folk music group and ambassadors for Ukrainian music and culture, and multi-Grammy Award-winning jazz legend Diane Schuur with Raul Midón.
Also, Arts Commons Presents, the programming arm of the centre, has several events listed for winter and spring 2024. It starts with A Jann Arden Christmas on Dec. 19 and 20. Arden shows up again as narrator of a National Geographic Film Concert: Secrets of the Whales on April 21 – 23, 2024.
To learn about all the shows in the 2023-24 season of Arts Commons Presents, visit acpresents.ca.
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