On Tuesday night Theatre Passe Muraille hosted the first of two “music and food” shows curated by members of the Women in Musical Leadership programme under the auspices of Tapestry Opera.  Juliane Gallant trawled her Acadian roots to create Le Kitchen Party.fun.

It was fun.  The serious side of Acadian culture and (rather grim) history was handled with a light touch and some humour.  The music was varied.  There were French mélodies; largely on the theme of the ocean and its simultaneous allure and deadliness.  That’s something that anyone from a maritime culture will relate to.  They were sung stylishly by Jacques Arsenault with Pierre-André Doucet at the piano.  There was more popular material; old and new, with Jacques often accompanying himself on accordion.  Since most of this material was in dialect I suspect that even fluent French speakers will have appreciated the surtitles (interleaved with gorgeous photographs).

There were tunes.  Jacques was joined by the extremely engaging violinist Marie Andrée Gaudet.  She showed what a really good violinist who is also steeped in tradition can do with what are essentially dance tunes.  There was a lot of foot stomping.  There was also a very good new composition; Un autre 15 août.  Sophie Dupuis set words by Pierre-André.  The text celebrates la Fête nationale de l’Acadie (quinze août) from the perspective of one who is rarely “at home” for the holiday but still feels deeply connected to the culture.  The music dflirted (maybe a little more than flirted) with Acadian folk roots while remaining very much a composed piece.  Scored for tenor, piano and violin, it was beautifully sung/played by Jacques, Pierre-André and Marie Andrée.

And while all this was going. on Juliane was stuck in the kitchen preparing Fricot; a traditional soup/stew of chicken and vegetables infused with savory and served with dumplings.  We didn’t get to taste her efforts (elf and safety) but a catered version was provided.  The fact that the national dish of (largely) fisher folk features chicken maybe says a lot about the checkered history of l’Acadie.

So, lots of fun and some fine music making.  And just enough thought provoking stuff.

Photo credit: Dahlia Katz