A Vibrant Return: Cultural Excitement at Place des Arts

There is always a whiff of excitement around Montréal’s cultural season, but this early September at Place des Arts, it is sheer effervescence. On the program: the combined talents of Mahler, DiDonato and Nézet-Séguin, gravity-defying dancers, and couples on the road from Quebec City to Montreal. Enough to fill your calendar well before the first cold!

Dance in Majesty

Festival Quartiers Danses begins the season, true to its mission:bringing contemporary dance out of the theaters and into everyday spaces. A festival that sows poetry icity's interstices, as well as in the Cinquième Salle and Studio-Théâtre des Grands Ballets. This year, Indigenous voices will be amplified and Montréal will be in dialogue with Copenhagen and Poland.

Then comes TEMPÉO, Dance and Music Festival, opening with Montreal band The Brooks who will set the Place des Arts Esplanade ablaze. Throughout the festival, expect festive evenings with a generous dose of funk, orient-pop, country, afro-pop, and salsa.

For lovers of refinement, a summit: Bella Figura by Jiří Kylián, a landmark of the contemporary repertoire, revived by Les Grands Ballets from September 11 to 20 at Théâtre Maisonneuve. Presented as the finale of a quadruple program also includes works by Glen Tetley, Hélène Blackburn, and Jérémy Galdeano, the piece balances precariously between sensuality and rigor, carried by performers who sculpt the air with an almost hypnotic intensity. 

Classics Revisited and Symphonic Thrills

But Place des Arts’s new season would not be complete without the great classical tradition, which is presented with panache. Audiences eager for lyricism will start with Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust, presented by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under Rafael Payare on September 17 and 18, at Maison symphonique. It is neither quite opera, nor quite an oratorio, but a musical journey through hell and heaven.

Another not-to-be-missed event: Mahler, Joyce and Yannick, a concert in which conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads the Orchestre Métropolitain through the vertigo of Mahler’s repertoire. Mahler, that giant of contrasts, finds in Nézet-Séguin a passionate and generous conductor who masterfully blends the intimate with the monumental. Add to that the exceptional voice of mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato! September 23 at Maison symphonique.

And of course, how can we forget Mozart’s eternal Don Giovanni? This unrepentant seducer, trapped by his own excesses, continues to fascinate three centuries later. Opera fans will not want to miss this event, which combines classical grandeur with timeless freshness. From September 27 to October 5 at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier.

Theatre Without Borders

While dance takes center stage, theatre  is not to be outdone.

With Rue Duplessis / Ma petite noirceur, sociologist and radio host Jean-Philippe Pleau adapts for stage his best-selling essay about his own story as a class defector. Following in the footsteps of Édouard Louis and Didier Eribon, he questions Québec’s social mobility through his personal perspective. With no acting experience, he steps on stage himself: a dizzying gamble for him, and a fascinating one for the audience. The play runs at Théâtre Jean-Duceppe from September 3 to October 4.

More unexpected is La faune locale, which casts a quirky eye on alienation at work, populated by strange yet familiar characters, revealed with humor and tenderness. A piece that holds up a mirror to us, sometimes cruel, sometimes amused. At Théâtre Jean-Duceppe, September 9 to 26.

And then, impossible to ignore the stage adaptation of Ricardo Trogi’s cult film Québec-Montréal. Revisiting this Québec classic about couples and sex is like hitting the road again with old friends: rediscovering the dialogues, the silences, the little truths that haven’t lost their bite. No famous lines have been omitted in this new theatrical version, promise!

Perfect for back-to-school, Catherine Dorion offers her Science Po 101 class. Finally, younger audiences can stop by Mini manifestes, from the Sons et brioches series, a place to protest and invent.

And That’s Not All…

As if all this weren’t enough, Place des Arts is hosting the Prix Gémeaux ceremony, celebrating the excellence of Québec television for the past 40 years! Expect a glamorous red-carpet and an evening full of surprises. Collective singing nostalgics will find their energy with Choir! Choir! Choir!, the participatory vocal happening that turns the audience into a one-night choir—this time singing the songs of Queen!

For music lovers craving exotic sounds, the Orchestre national de jazz, conducted by Jovino Santos Neto, will pay tribute to the unclassifiable Brazilian Hermeto Pascoal—a reminder that at Place des Arts, music knows no boundaries. September 18 at Cinquième Salle.

Also in a class of her own, Sarah Millican opens up about a surprising part of her life in her third show, Late Bloomer.

Now it’s up to the audience: whether they choose classical rigor, theatrical energy, or the vitality of dance, one thing is sure—there's plenty to get carried away. The full program promises many more discoveries.