Montréal history awes in Montréal Avudo

A dazzling new multimedia show transforms the St. Lawrence River this summer in Montréal’s Old Port. Created in celebration of the city’s 375th anniversary, Montréal Avudo turns walls of water and 11 storeys of shipping containers into windows to the past.

Through innovative projected 3D animations and archival images, sound effects and a striking musical score, Montréal Avudo takes us on a journey through the city’s history, from its industrial beginnings to its most recent innovations, spanning quiet winter nights and festive summer days over 375 years.

With water jets reaching 30 metres high matched by 94 shipping containers stacked into the world’s highest container tower, Montréal Avudo seems set to stun. Yet within the show’s high-tech wonders is an impassioned, true-to-life tale of human connection – memories of lives lived along the St. Lawrence River, a community building a city from the ground up and into the global metropolis it is today.

Montréal Avudo‘s creator, Swiss artist Daniele Finzi Pasca, is best known for crafting award-winning shows for Montréal-based Cirque Éloize (Nomade, Rain and Nebbia) and Cirque du Soleil (Corteo and Luzia), as well as imbuing the closing ceremonies of the Turin and Sochi Olympic Games with awe-inspiring imagery. He co-founded Compagnia Finzi Pasca with his wife, Julie Hamelin Finzi, and fellow artists Hugo Gargiulo and Antonio Vergamini, harmonizing their collaborative vision for international large-scale opera, acrobatic theatre and film productions. Amplifying Montréal Avudo‘s emotional resonance is its original musical score, composed by Maria Bonzanigo and recorded with the Orchestre Métropolitain and the Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal.

Montréal Avudo opens after dark on May 17 and continues all summer in the Old Port, right next to the King Edward Pier and Montréal Science Centre. Happily, admission to the show is free, though online reservations are recommended.

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