Horsing around in Montreal

The Festival montréal baroque is celebrating its tenth anniversary this weekend with quite the program. Titled "Apocalypse", in line with the Mayan predictions, the festival lineup was inspired by the themes of revelation and transformation.

One of the main attractions this year is a reproduction of an equestrian ballet first performed in 1612. That's right, horses will be dancing.

The four horses (representing war, pestilence, famine, and death), along with four dancers from the baroque dance troupe Les Jardins chorégraphiques, will be accompanied by a 21-strong band of oboes, bassoons, sackbuts, cornets, fifes, drums, and trumpets as they dance in the open air.

This past Wednesday, the band got its first chance to run with the horses. Not a common gig, the rehearsal was quite the show in itself. With mosquitos flying, barn smells, dogs barking, and plenty of dust, if one were to have been driving by the farm a band of historical musicians would have been the least likely sight to expect to see.

The event looks to be quite the spectacle and I am told that it has been completely sold out for a while now. If you have a ticket, Good on You!