The Festival international de Jazz de Montréal is an annual jazz festival held in Montreal , Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Jazz Fest holds the 2004 Guinness World Record as the world's largest jazz festival. Every year it features roughly 3,000 artists from 30-odd countries, more than 650 concerts (including 450 free outdoor performances), and welcomes over 2 million visitors (12.5% of whom are tourists) as well as 300 accredited journalists. The festival takes place at 20 different stages, which include free outdoor stages and indoor concert halls.
21-445: A major part of the city's downtown core is closed to traffic for ten days, as free outdoor shows are open to the public and held on many stages at the same time, from noon until midnight. The "festival's Big Event concerts typically draw between 100,000 and 150,000 people", and can occasionally exceed 200,000. Shows are held in a wide variety of venues, from relatively small jazz clubs to the large concert halls of Place des Arts . Some of
42-557: A Opus Award for a double bill of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi directed by Alain Gauthier, and again in 2013 for Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking . Performances are held at the Place des Arts theatre complex in downtown Montreal, in the borough of Ville-Marie . In 1984, l'Atelier lyrique was founded in order to promote the development of a national outreach, led by Yvonne Goudreau. In 1990 Chantal Lambert
63-608: A company focused on productions in French. Before the Opéra de Montréal was established in 1980 there had been a number of previous attempts to establish an opera company in the city. L'Opéra français de Montréal operated from 1893 to 1896, and gave almost 600 performances, principally of operetta . The Montreal Opera Company was started in 1910 by Albert Clerk-Jeannotte with financing from Frank S. Meighen , and ran for three years. The Société Canadienne d'Opérette [ fr ]
84-590: A romantic opera by André Gagnon based on a book by Michel Tremblay .In 1997-1998, two Opus Awards were given for the production of Janáček's Jenůfa . In 2004, two Opus Awards were again given to the company for Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle . In 2007, the company cooperated with Opera Australia by presenting Lakmé by Delibes, and was rated as one of the 15 largest opera companies in North America. In 2008, an outdoor presentation of Puccini's Madame Butterfly attracted 33,000 listeners. In 2010 it received
105-599: A summer festival in Montreal that would bring a number of artists together at the same time. They planned their first festival for the summer of 1979. Unable to secure sufficient funding, their plans were scuttled, but they still were able to produce two nights of shows at Théâtre-St-Denis featuring Keith Jarrett and Pat Metheny . Starting on May 10, 1980, a Montreal Jazz Festival was staged, with funding from Alain de Grosbois of CBC Stereo and Radio-Québec . With Gary Burton , Ray Charles , Chick Corea, and Vic Vogel on
126-726: Is a major performing arts centre in Montreal , Quebec , Canada, and the largest cultural and artistic complex in Canada. Home to the Montreal Symphony Orchestra , the Orchestre Métropolitain , Les Grands Ballets Canadiens , and the Opéra de Montréal , the complex is situated between Saint Catherine and de Maisonneuve streets, and Saint-Urbain and Jeanne-Mance streets, in an area now known as
147-470: The COVID-19 pandemic , in what would have been its 41st edition. In 2021, because of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, it was announced that the 41st edition would be postponed until the autumn, and would be reduced to 5 days, with limited outdoor performances, whilst indoor shows would be put on hold until 2022. The possibility of outright cancellation remained. A number of albums have been recorded live at
168-559: The Complexe Desjardins to the south as part of the Underground City . The site is decorated with several works of public art including L'artiste est celui qui fait voir l'autre côté des choses by Claude Bettinger , Comme si le temps… de la rue by Pierre Granche , and La voie lactée by Geneviève Cadieux . A bust of conductor Wilfrid Pelletier by sculptor Arto Tchakmaktchian is on permanent display in
189-484: The Quartier des spectacles in the borough of Ville-Marie . Place des Arts was an initiative of Mayor Jean Drapeau , a noted lover of opera, as part of a project to expand the downtown core eastward from the concentration of business and financial activity in the centre-west part of downtown. The Corporation George-Étienne-Cartier, named in honour of George-Étienne Cartier , a Father of Confederation and opera lover,
210-541: The artistic director was Pauline Donalda . Another professional opera company, the Opéra du Québec (i.e. the province), operated in Montreal from 1971 to 1975. A different company Opéra de Québec (i.e. the city) was founded in Québec City in 1983. The company was established in 1980 by the Ministère des Affaires culturelles du Québec , five years after the closure of the Opéra du Québec. Jean-Paul Jeannotte
231-602: The Montreal International Jazz Festival's lack of support for and showcasing of Montreal jazz musicians created an alternative festival called L'OFF Festival de Jazz de Montreal . The alternative festival continues as an annual, week-long jazz festival in Montreal, programmed largely by musicians. In 2020, for the first time in its 40-year history the International Montreal Jazz Festival was cancelled, due to
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#1732764668775252-482: The bill, and an attendance of 12,000, the event was deemed a success and has continued to grow since then. In 2000, the Festival teamed up with Distribution Select to release its 4-CD box set called Over 20 years of music – Plus de 20 ans de musique . The box includes a 13-page booklet with the artists' biographies and complete liner notes about the music. In 1999, a group of Montreal jazz musicians disenchanted with
273-570: The cost of C$ 105 million. In 2015, the Quebec government announced it would spend $ 34.2 million to remodel the esplanade into a large outdoor stage that will host big events year round. Work is to be complete in 2018. The Place des Arts includes six concert venues of various sizes: This wealth of theatres permits the staging of opera , symphony , ballet and other dance , chamber music , choral music , theatre , film presentation, and various other presentations and ceremonies. In addition to
294-488: The entrance hall. In the summer, the esplanade and adjacent street comprise one of the important outdoor sites of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal . Op%C3%A9ra de Montr%C3%A9al L ' Opéra de Montréal is an opera company in Montreal , Canada. It performs at the Place des Arts theatre complex in downtown Montreal, in the borough of Ville-Marie . It was founded in 1980 as
315-560: The festival, including: Charlie Haden , The Montreal Tapes – recorded in 1989 Established in 1982, the Concours de Jazz is an annual competition held at the Montreal International Jazz Festival. The competition takes place between Canadian groups performing original music, and is part of the festival's outdoor program. Throughout its history the prize has been awarded to many of Canada's most prominent jazz musicians. Name changes Winners Place des Arts Place des Arts
336-506: The outdoor shows are held on the cordoned-off streets, while others are in terraced parks. Rouè-Doudou Boicel founded the Rising Sun Festijazz, Montreal's first blues & jazz festival in 1978. There were also other previous jazz festivals in Montreal, including the 3-day Jazz de Chez Nous festival in 1979, created by Montreal bassist Charlie Biddle . The Montreal Jazz Festival (later: Montreal International Jazz Festival)
357-457: The theatres, the complex hosts the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal , a museum of contemporary art , as well as rehearsal halls, shops, services, and a large, popular esplanade decorated with original fountains and water cascades. All the facilities are connected by an underground mall, also linked to Place-des-Arts Metro station and Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) to the north and
378-468: Was conceived by Alain Simard , who had spent much of the 1970s working with Productions Kosmos bringing artists such as Chuck Berry , Dave Brubeck , Chick Corea , Bo Diddley , John Lee Hooker , Muddy Waters , and others to Montreal to perform. In 1977, Simard teamed up with André Ménard and Denyse McCann to form an agency named Spectra Scène (now known as L'Équipe Spectra ), with the idea of creating
399-663: Was director until 1989, when Bernard Uzan [ fr ] took over. In 1988 bilingual supertitles were introduced. In 1989 the Opéra's finances stabilized. Jacqueline Desmarais founded the Montréal Opera Guild to support the Opéra through fundraising and special events like the Gala and the Signature Event. The Opéra also received the Félix Award for the most popular show of the season, Nelligan ,
420-479: Was set up to build it, and the first part of the complex (including the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier) was inaugurated on September 21, 1963. The other theatres were added progressively. The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal was added to the complex on May 28, 1992, and in 2009, construction began on a new concert hall for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra . The 2,100-seat facility opened in 2011 at
441-611: Was started by Honoré Vaillancourt [ fr ] in 1921, and gave some 300 performances in the following ten years. Another light opera company, the Variétés Lyriques, was established in 1936, and between then and 1955 gave more than 1000 performances; 13 of the 83 works presented were serious operas . From 1942 until 1950 the Opera Guild of Montreal gave two performances of each of two productions per year, and then until 1959 mounted only one annual production;
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