In tune with Montreal
MUSICAL COUPLE could have worked elsewhere, but chose to raise a family in this ‘arpent de neige’
I was born and raised in Richmond, Calif., directly across the bay from San Francisco. I met my wife, the Canadian mezzosoprano Marie Laferrière, while she was singing in a San Francisco Opera production of Mozart’s Magic Flute.
We were subsequently both asked to perform leading roles in The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, a contemporary opera by Lukas Foss, at the San Francisco Community Music Centre. My future wife was already wellestablished in the musical world, while I was just beginning to pick up interesting contracts.
She left North America to sing in Europe for six months, but on her return we met in St. Barthélemy, Que., where her family has lived since the 1700s. There, on a blustery winter day in January 1976, we were married. Then it was back to California, where my studio apartment in Berkeley became our love nest.
Soon after our marriage, my wife became seriously ill and had to return to Montreal — for radiation treatment and then a delicate operation — because I had no medical insurance for her in California and couldn’t afford the cost of treatment there. She spent six months recovering in California, all the while preparing for the Dallas Dealey Opera Competition, which she won.
Then, thanks to several contracts awaiting her at Radio-Canada in Montreal, and my desire to improve my vocal technique by studying with her voice teacher, in April 1977 we drove across the continent with what little we could stuff into my old Rambler. Home became the upper floor of a historic townhouse on Sherbrooke St. across from the entrance to McGill University.
It was the adventure of a lifetime: living and working in French while also experiencing the British influence in Quebec’s culture and architecture (and in how English words were spelled in Canada); the first trip to a sugar shack and tasting a sugar pie; in-laws who didn’t understand a word of English; eating crétons and cheese for breakfast, the unlimited variety of liver pâté, and pig-feet ragout; coming home from rehearsals in the middle of the night in perfect security; celebrating Christmas after midnight mass; playing in the snow; and enjoying the brilliant starlit nights of winter and the warm colours of autumn.
It was imperative that I learn French. To do so, I performed with an opera workshop at the Université de Montréal. I smiled a lot, I had huge headaches at the end of rehearsals, but I learned the language.
When we learned that we were to have our first child, we decided to make Montreal our permanent home. We could have lived anywhere in the States, or in Europe for that matter, but we chose Montreal. The clinchers were the excellent medical care and the educational system. Home eventually became Notre Dame de Grâce.
Our three children were educated in French, and received the finest education Montreal could offer. They were raised in a multicultural setting long before that was the norm. Forty years ago, to get German food (on which I was raised) we had to go to the restaurant Vieux Munich at the corner of St. Denis St. and what was then Dorchester Blvd. Getting ingredients for preparing my favourite Mexican recipes was a challenge.
Settling in Montreal opened a niche for me in the musical world: performing Canadian works. I performed with the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec, Chants Libres, the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Radio-Canada and Radio France, to name a few. Marie won many vocal competitions, became renowned as a recital artist in venues like Carnegie Hall in New York and Salle Pleyel in Paris, and performed operatic roles, including The Magic Flute and L’Enfant et les sortilèges with the Opéra de Montréal. When I read these lists I wonder how it was we managed to raise three children.
There was no better place to raise a family. Our eldest son is now a specialist on the Bible and has written several books; our second son teaches physics at a college on the South Shore; and our princess plays two concerts daily on the 56 bells of the carillon at St. Joseph’s Oratory.
When the grandchildren arrived, we were not thrilled by the idea of daycare, so right from the start we cared for them at home. It does not make for an easy retirement, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.
I have expatriate friends who consider “home” to be the place they came from. But when someone asks me, I say that home is right here in Montreal. Marie and I like the idea of getting away for the winter months, but if we did that we would miss out on watching our little ones grow and develop. This arpent de neige is what they know. It is home.
David Doane is a tenor who taught vocal literature at McGill University and voice at the École de musique Vincent d’Indy. He is now assistant carillonist at St. Joseph’s Oratory. He lives in Montreal.