From June 28 to July 14 at the Théâtre des Grands Chênes in Kingsey Falls, Natalie Choquette will present Murder at the Opera, this “beautiful madness” which is intended to be a delirious musical-investigation-comedy directed by Jean-Guy Legault and under the direction musical direction by pianist John Roney. She delivers a real tour force by playing both the victim and the suspects, while performing a repertoire that is surprising to say the least: opera, pop and even heavy metal are on the menu!
“I have had a passion for thrillers since I was a teenager. I read my first Agatha Christie at 12 years old, and I discovered my love for opera afterwards…perhaps because there are often murders in it! », sneers the favorite soprano of Quebecers. “I also like Charlie Chaplin and silent films in general, retro, everything that is no longer fashionable… In short, before the pandemic, I had the idea of amalgamating all these passions into a single and even spectacle; after the end of health restrictions, I spoke about my project to Denise and Guillaume at Ad Litteram and they loved the idea. They therefore put me in contact with Jean-Guy Legault, a funny man of the theater, with a boundless imagination, who took my concept much further. Which means that we find ourselves today with a participatory musical investigation during which the public helps to find the murderer of a diva named Rosabella di Buffala, who was murdered on stage during a performance of La Traviata in 1930 at La Scala from Milan. Nothing less! » Among the seven suspects, all played by Natalie Choquette except one (the pianist StanWay), we find the conductor and husband of the diva, a New York impresario who speaks in onomatopoeia, a costume designer who is the best friend of the victim, a German otolaryngologist and Vanessa Paradisiaque, a young singer who tries to copy the diva…” It is an immense challenge for me, who has no training as an actress, to learn the text and playing so many characters. I find it wonderful, at my age, to continue to discover new things. As long as I have the strength, I want to continue to occupy myself as pleasantly and as usefully as possible. If I can give happiness to spectators this summer through this show, then life is worth living. There are so many horrible things on earth, if I can entertain people for two hours, all this work will not have been done in vain,” concludes Natalie Choquette. Tickets for this one-of-a-kind show are already on sale.
