Wow, look at all this fresh snow! Enjoy it - check out the latest updates about the city’s cross-country ski trails and outdoor rink conditions.
Montréal en Lumière has returned! With music, circus and gastronomic offerings, until March 5. This weekend, check out fresh light installations, food trucks and La Grande Roue at the Quartier des spectacles. Singer-songwriter Pierre Lapointe performs Les Retrouvailes Saturday and Sunday, Théâtre Maisonneuve.
Lyrico singers Marco Bocchicchio, Sam Champagne, and Matthew Adam perform the Best of Broadway, accompanied by pianist Francis Choinière. Selections will include Les Mis, West Side Story, The Sound of Music and Phantom of the Opera. Sunday, Salle Claude-Léveillée.
Two new shows in town: the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts presents Nicolas Party: L'heure mauve, a look at the Swiss artist’s pastels, watercolours and sculptures, set against murals he’s painted in the Museum… plus with 50 works selected by Party from the Museum’s collection. The show title is a reference to ‘that fleeting moment when the fading light casts purple hues over the landscape’ - how dreamy!
The McCord Museum has just launched the fascinating JJ Levine: Queer Portraits. The Montreal artist presents 52 intimate images of people who self-identify as queer, selected from three different series taken between now and 2006.
The Montreal Science Centre has just reopened! Explore evolution in Human or explore the process of invention in Fabrik - Creativity Factory. Plus, the movie theatre is open, so you can sit back and learn about Sea Lions and the Great Bear Rainforest - in IMAX 3D!
While the kids play at the Science Centre, maybe you can sneak off to Bota Bota floating spa or Spa Scandinave in the Old Port? Because spas reopened this week! Also, The Old Port’s skating rink is open, with tickets available online.
Viewing @ home: Borscht Belt comedy stylings with The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel! Rachel Brosnahan’s ‘50s housewife-turned-standup is back for season four on Amazon Prime. (Savour it - the show was just renewed for its fifth and final season!) And Canadian filmmaker Ivan Reitman passed away at age 75 this week. Known for his work as director and producer, Reitman directed and produced hit comedies… and you can reminisce with classics like Meatballs and Stripes (CTV.ca), as well as Animal House and the original Ghostbusters (Crave and Netflix).
Wordle fans! If you need a fix after you solve today’s puzzle, or find the NYT era too tough, I have three options for you. Name a country by looking at its shape with Worldle - each wrong guess will show its relation to the answer by direction and distance. Quordle gives you four words, which you have to solve - simultaneously - in nine guesses. (It’s maddeninhly hard!) And Nerdle presents you with a bank math equation.
Visions Hip-Hop QC: Exhibition is an expansive portrait series opening this weekend at the Phi Centre. Painter Marven Clerveau has curated a ‘visual and sonic journey’ to portray the people who have shaped the hip-hop scene in the province. Marven speaks with artists like Webster, Tammy Tuesdayz and Know Kandu, as well as local music managers. Until March 26.
The 14th edition of Massimadi: Afro LGBTQ+ film and arts festival presents over 20 films available to stream online, for free! Like the animated inspirational interview feature Well Rounded, an exploration of masculinity through the words of poet Geroge Matthew Johnson in All Boys Aren’t Blue and portrait of Chicago trans icon Mama Gloria. Until March 11
‘Honouring the past, inspiring the future’ is the theme for Montreal’s 31st annual Black History Month, with a jam-packed schedule with a variety of activities in both languages.
The SAT presents -22.7°C, a new immersive show by French music producer Molécule, who journeyed to Greenland to record sounds of the environment on his ‘survival electrokit’. He incorporates Arctic ice, wind and snow into a rich soundscape for your ears while your eyes will be treated to Belgian studio Dirty Monitor’s stunning visuals. Three screenings Tuesday to Saturday, until February 26. (It’s only 40 minutes long, so if you’re still tentative about public events, this is a great place to ease yourself in!)
Stream the NFB’s nominated animated short film, Affairs of the Art, about the everyday obsessions of an eccentric family.
Walk or drive through Cavalia’s magical Illumi circuit in Laval. If you caught the show last year, it’s nearly entirely a brand new show, with many new ‘universes’ to discover, like the candy blizzard, giant puppies and kittens, an Aladdin-inspired palace and a ‘submarine tunnel’. Until March 13.
Take in the 12th edition of Luminotherapie now lighting up the Quartier des spectacles with cool installations, like Impulse (the lit-up seesaws) and Mathias Gmachl's giant wooden whale, Echoes - a voice from uncharted waters. Until February 27. In the same area, Cyrielle Tremblay's illustrations 100% Chance of Snow is being projected on the BanQ, UdeM building on President-Kennedy and outside the St Laurent metro station. Look up and delight in the colourful snow plows, hedgehogs and winter walks.
The Opéra de Montréal presents two performances available to rent online, Bizet's Carmen and Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel.
Run away to the circus, at least metaphorically, with Pointe-à-Callière It's Circus Time! Over 350 objects will explore the 200-some year history of the art in Quebec, through costumes, props, training equipment and more.
It's free to visit the McCord Museum until Wednesday, where you will want to check out the new show Parachute: Subversive Fashion of the '80s. It's a moody, bold look at the style and messaging of the decade through the stylings of Parachute, a made-in-Montreal label created by a British fashion designer and an American architect. Their concept stores were soon found in New York and Los Angeles, and their creations were in demand from the likes of Madonna, Peter Gabriel and David Bowie! And don't miss the harrowing Indigenous Voices of Today, which highlights the voices of people from different Indigenous communities. The show both reveals the craftsmanship of every day traditional objects like waterproof parkas and sewing tools, then explores the exploitation and oppression of Indigenous families and land, then finishes with realistic questions about reconciliation.
Monet - Dr Mitch-approved! The people who brought you the Van Gogh immersive experience now shift their attention to one of the most iconic of the French Impressionist painters, with Imagine Monet. Now on at Arsenal Gallery in Little Burgundy, it's like taking a bath in works by Claude Monet (1840-1926). The roughly 35-minute show introduces you to his work, and then you are immersed in his iconic water lilies and Japanese footbridge scenes, as well as rich snapshots from nature, beaches and busy French streets and ports. A meditative visit with one of the greatest painters. Until February 27.
Exporail, the Canadian train museum in St Constant, has free entry this Sunday. See the current show: Train, a Railroad to Dreams: A World in Miniature. It’s an homage to toy trains… so you start with the smallest of the trains, then pivot to marvel at the 50 life-size vehicles on display in the Grand Gallery.