MONTREAL—Emilie Bélanger, a violinist and teacher, and her mother, Lucie Guénette, a secretary, watched Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Place des Arts - Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier on April 13. Ms. Guénette bought the tickets for her daughter and granddaughter as birthday gifts.
“The show is fantastic,” Ms. Guénette said. “I loved it—the dancers are incredible. ... I’m getting chills right now thinking about it. It’s an unforgettable moment in my life.”
“It was truly magnificent,” Ms. Bélanger said.
“It’s perfection in every detail, and it’s very inspiring too. It makes us feel good.”
“It was very interesting to see the interplay between the different sections of the orchestra,” Ms. Bélanger said.
“I felt that the music was what gave the whole [performance] momentum,” Ms. Guénette said.
“The stories are very inspiring,” Ms. Bélanger said. “You experience a lot of emotions. And the beauty, especially the beauty of the costumes, the sets, the music, it all blends together.”
Ms. Bélanger and Ms. Guénette also enjoyed listening to the erhu solo. The erhu is a two-stringed traditional Chinese instrument that can express a wide range of emotions.
“It’s a very, very emotional instrument,” Ms. Bélanger said.
“It’s a fascinating thing,” Ms. Guénette said. “Two strings with all the sounds you’re going to get, I found that incredible.”
Singers performed songs in the traditional bel-canto style, and Ms. Guénette felt that the lyrics—which urge a return to tradition—were important.
“It makes you think,” she said. “It’s changing my life. It’s going to change my life.”
Ms. Bélanger made sure to express her appreciation for the performers’ dedication to their crafts.
“We can see that they’re musicians and singers of great talent, who sing with real passion, who give their all to their art,” she said. “The dancers, too. You can see [they’re] giving it their all. It’s a total devotion to their art. So it’s wonderful to be able to receive that, to be able to witness that.”
Shen Yun depicts the spiritual elements of traditional Chinese culture, and Ms. Bélanger saw the performance to be “a way of illustrating divine qualities [like] harmony, beauty, light.”
Ms. Guénette had words of gratitude for the performers as well.
“I thank them for working so hard to make our lives happy,” she said. “It makes us happy, and that’s what artists transmit. They give themselves, they work for hours and hours and hours, so [I thank the] artists for giving us that.”
