Suzie Leblanc

Description: If the road is a universal metaphor for the
journey of life, then the road less
travelled is a perfectly fitting one for the
singular way soprano Suzie LeBlanc’s
career has unfolded. She has carved out
one of the most unique profiles of any
Canadian soprano, with a career that
includes not only recitals and
performances around the world with
orchestras, opera companies, and new,
early and traditional music ensembles,
but also a widely-acclaimed acting
performance as the protagonist in
Rodrigue Jean's film Lost Song – named
one of Canada’s Top Ten films of 2008 at
the Toronto International Film Festival.
Lost Song also won the City of Toronto-
Citytv Award for Best Canadian Feature
Film at the Festival.

Having also completed the fabled
pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in
Spain – known to followers as simply “el
camino”, it’s no surprise that exploring
the pathways of life is not only a central
metaphor for LeBlanc’s career, but also a
source of inspiration. In fact, walking is
one of the parallels between LeBlanc and
the Pulitzer prize-winning American poet
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), who is the
focus of much of her attention these
days.

LeBlanc is co-artistic director and one of
the guiding lights behind EB100: The
Elizabeth Bishop Centenary, an ambitious
world-wide, year-long celebration of the
poet’s life and influence. The
multidisciplinary celebration aims to
generate new creation across Canada,
and especially in the Maritimes. EB100
will involve collaborations with arts
organizations including Scotia Festival,
Viewpoint Gallery, Symphony Nova Scotia
as well as literary festivals, film festivals,
and a prose competition – a reflection of
the “octopus-like way she had of
inspiring artists of all stripes,” says
LeBlanc. “Her fame is exponential at this
point, and it turns out that she has been
incredibly inspirational to several
generations of artists.”

In 2006, while researching the repertoire
for her well-received second Acadian
album Tout Passe, Chants d’Acadie on
ATMA Classique, LeBlanc walked
hundreds of kilometres on the East Coast
trail of Newfoundland and spent time
gathering traditional songs in her native
New-Brunswick — a journey that is
documented in the film “Suzie LeBlanc: A
Musical Quest”, which was broadcast
nationally this year on Bravo! LeBlanc
discovered that the 21-year old Bishop
had traversed the Avalon Peninsula in
Newfoundland on foot over a three-week
period in 1932.

LeBlanc’s initial encounter with Bishop’s
work and influence was serendipitous: “I
hadn’t read any of her poetry. I happened
to be visiting Great Village, Nova Scotia,
where she had spent a part of her
childhood. I found a leaflet about
Elizabeth Bishop in a church basement
where some friends of mine were
rehearsing for a concert, and I was
intrigued by her story and by her photo.
After that, I kept meeting people who
were fans of her work including Canadian
composer Alasdair MacLean, who led me
to Sandra Barry, a writer and independent
scholar who knows everything about
Elizabeth Bishop. I was also struck by the
fact that Elizabeth’s centenary in 2011
would coincide with my 50th birthday
and I had wanted to work on a special
project for that year. With Sandra’s
initiatives and ideas for a centenary
Festival, the Elizabeth Bishop Centenary
Festival (EB100) was born!” explains
LeBlanc.

As if putting together a year-long
celebration of a renowned poet’s work
wasn’t enough, in addition to her regular
performances on the world’s stages,
LeBlanc has been running her own opera
company since 2005. Le Nouvel Opéra
was born of a meeting of minds between
several gifted artists, including opera and
stage director Guillaume Bernardi and
ATMA recording artists, conductor and
harpsichordist Alexander Weimann, and
countertenor Matthew White. Antonio
Caldara’s oratorio La Conversione di
Clodoveo, Rè di Francia marks the debut
recording by Le Nouvel Opéra on ATMA
Classique featuring an all-Canadian cast.

Today, the leadership of Le Nouvel Opéra
is shared on a rotating basis between
LeBlanc, Weimann and stage director
Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière. The
company is dedicated to the production
and workshopping of repertoire from the
baroque period in the form of operas,
oratorios, intermezzi, singspiel and other
art forms where dance, theatre,
commedia dell'arte, visual arts and
singing are blended together into one
spectacle. Since 2005, Le Nouvel Opéra
has presented both fully staged and in-
concert versions of operas and oratorios
by Monteverdi, Purcell, Rameau and
Mozart in Vancouver, Montreal, and
Germany, and will hold its third annual
workshop for young singers, dancers and
actors in Montreal this summer.

During our interview, Suzie LeBlanc
mentions that, thanks to having received
a special grant from the Conseil des arts
et des lettres du Québec, she will be
taking a sabbatical next year and will
perform very few concerts in 2012. It’s
no surprise that her sabbatical year is
chock-full of ambitious projects and
further explorations: she hopes to work
on the third in her series of Acadian
albums. She will also use her sabbatical
time to develop a new recital programme
and “in order to become a fuller, more
well-rounded musician,” LeBlanc intends
to practice the art of self-
accompaniment, a natural for this singer
who originally trained as a
harpsichordist.
LeBlanc also looks forward to receiving
her third honorary degree, this time from
the university in her hometown of
Moncton. Reflecting on her career at
mid-life and her full slate of new projects
and exploration, she says, “I feel like I’ve
gone back to school.” And while her fans
will miss her luminous presence on the
stage next year, they will, no doubt, be
thrilled to share what she has learned.

© Luisa Trisi, 2011

Description: In her previous life as a professional Montreal singer and pianist, new mom Elisabeth (Suzie LeBlanc) strove for perfect harmony, something a squalling newborn rarely provides. When her equally demanding husband Pierre (Patrick Goyette) moves the family to the untamed country, Elisabeth's struggles with postpartum depression becomes a family crisis. Acadian filmmaker Rodrigue Jean (Full Blast) directs and writes with understated power and empathy; Lost Song could tear your heart out.

Description: This taut and atmospheric film doesn't miss a beat. LeBlanc stars as Elisabeth, a new mother who can't quite cope with the move to an isolated cottage with her husband, Pierre (Goyette). The immense wilderness and her overbearing husband strain Elisabeth's calm, and she slowly unravels.

Directing with patience and precision, Jean adds tension by keeping mum about his characters' motives. There's no exposition, very little dialogue and a thin plot.

Instead, he relies on evocative cinematography that makes the trees shift from idyllic to foreboding, editing that delivers a jolt every tie someone so much as trips over a log and a strong performance by LeBlanc, whose every flicker of emotion is placed under a microscope for analysis.

The film had me leaning closer so as not to miss a single moment.