One of the Most Beautiful Voices in Québec

 

(JONQUIÈRE) An engaging natural, Bruno Pelletier delivered an audacious project titled Musique et cinema yesterday evening at the Pierre-Gaudreault auditorium in Jonquière in front of almost 200 people who were there to hear one of the most beautiful voices in all of Québec.

 

The spectators also discovered one of Québec’s greatest musicans, Guy St-Onge, renowned multi-instrumentalist, arranger, composer, and musical director.  The voice of Bruno Pelletier and the musical instinct of Guy St-Onge were united by the link of friendship between the two artists to create a show offering songs chosen from movies by the two artists simply because they liked them and they wanted to use them to make an album.

 

Pieces like La maison sous les arbres by Bécaud, Calling you by Jeveta Steele from the film Bagdad café, The Long and Winding Road by the Beatles from the film Let it Be, or Your Song by Elton John from the film Moulin rouge were interpreted Bruno Pelletier-style with his grand sensibility and self-confidence.  He also had lots to say; we were far from “silent films.”

 

 “Over Christmas, my grandmother, who’s 88 years old, told me simply, ‘Bruno, I found a song that you’re going to sing at my funeral.’  I was twirling a cocktail with my glass between by fingers, but I took this kind of talk seriously.  ‘You’re going to sing Le coeur est un oiseau by Richard Desjardins,’ my grandmother told me.  This song was played in the film Le party by Pierre Falardeau, so here it is,’ he tells us before singing.  It was like that the whole evening.

 

Bruno Pelletier explained why he had chosen these songs all while messing around with the crowd and allowing several deviations.  He delivered a superb version of La manic by Georges d’Or before introducing Schefferville, le dernier train by Michel Rivard, a piece that was part of the film Le dernier glacier.  Bruno Pelletier was very touching his this interpretation”…they closed the mine, I saw my father crying on the kitchen table,” the interpretation was well done and filled with emotion.

 

 “This song should be taught in schools.  It’s about what happened on the plains of Abraham but it also has to do with things in different regions of Québec for 500 years,” Guy St-Onge commented, who pushed Bruno Pelletier to emphasize the importance of updating this songs and keeping them alive.

 

The project Musique et cinema permitted Pelletier and St-Onge to have fun above all while sharing their love of music and of cinema.  They winked at Louis Armstrong, Barbara Streisand.  Their interpretation of Calling You has also allowed one to see of all the shades of this moving voice.

 

The piano-voice duo was charming, even offering a symphonic version of certain songs that were also done for an orchestra.  “There won’t be a screen tonight, only images in your head with the emotions of cinema music,” said Bruno Pelletier at the beginning of the show.  The people are left not only with images in their heads, but also with emotions in their hearts.

 

The journalist had to leave before the interpretation of Ordinaire by Robert Charlebois from the film Gabriel, a moment that must have been magical if one trusts in the album’s version of the song.

 

 

Translated by Ashlee R. Estep