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| Quebec playwright and icon Michel Marc Bouchard |
This is an expanded version of Bugs' interview with Michel Marc Bouchard that originally ran in Daily Xtra on May 17, 2016.
Quebec
playwright and icon Michel Marc Bouchard casts queer life versus religion, and
condemns religion while celebrating queer sexuality in his landmark 1987 play Les
Feluettes ou la répétition d’un drame romantique.
Considered one of the major works of modern Canadian theatre,
the English-language adaption, Lilies, won the Dora Mavor Moore Award and
the Chalmers Award for best play in 1991. Even the film version by John Greyson
won the Genie Award for best motion picture in 1996.
And
now, Les Feluettes will be coming to a different stage — as an opera.
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| Les Feluettes stars Etienne Dupuis and Jean-Michel Richer |
The play’s hotly-anticipated opera version makes its historic world premiere at the Opéra de Montréal in May 2016. Les Feluettes also garners the distinction of being the first ever French-language opera about a (tragic) gay love story.
After
Australian composer Kevin March saw Greyson’s adaptation in 2003, he was
inspired to create an opera version. It would be another decade before the
Opéra de Montréal commissioned March and Bouchard to create Les Feluettes.
The opera stars baritone Etienne Dupuis and tenor Jean-Michel Richer as the two
lovers.
