Ode à l'Acadie premieres on CBC Maritimes

ODE on CBC - PHOTOS BY TREVOR 214 (petit) Ode à l’Acadie, a new one-hour music special featuring a concert with the amazing Acadian performers of Ode à l’Acadie, premieres Saturday, July 18, at 10pm on CBC Maritimes.

Produced by Halifax-based New Scotland Pictures Inc. in association with CBC Maritimes, the show features Isabelle Thériault, François Émond, Christian KIT Goguen, Benoit Picard, Monique Poirier, Patricia Richard, and Louise Vautour.

Ode à l’Acadie is a celebration of Acadian culture and history. The best Acadian songs of all time have been rearranged and contemporised in a show that is a dazzling blend of music, theatre, cinema, and choreography. These seven exuberant young Acadians are great musicians, entertainers and genuine show people. Their songs tell stories of the Acadians over three centuries. The program is packed with crowd pleasers like the mysterious and dark Marie Caissie, the sublime and powerful Grand-Pré, and Évangéline Acadian Queen, a delightful spoof showing how Longfellow’s heroine has been commercialized in present day Acadia.

Ode à l’Acadie created in 2004 by Le Festival acadien de Caraquet and produced since 2005 by Les Productions Ode. The Artistic Director is René Cormier and the Musical Director is Isabelle Thériault. The show was originally planned for only 25 dates, but the tremendous success of the production has brought that number to more than 400 performances in front of almost 200,000 people. The show has toured all over the Maritimes, in Quebec, Ontario, the United States, France, Switzerland, and Burkina Faso in Africa.

New Scotland Pictures www.newscotlandpictures.ca is the only television production company in Atlantic Canada dedicated exclusively to creating performing arts programming. Ode à l’Acadie was produced for CBC Maritimes by Charlie Cahill. The show was directed by Moya Walsh and Jim Spitler.

Ode à l’Acadie was produced with the participation of Film Nova Scotia, CBC Maritimes, ARTV, and Radio-Canada.

Les Productions Ode is a nonprofit organization which benefits from the support of the governments of New Brunswick and Canada. All the information on Ode à l’Acadie and other shows by Les Productions Ode is available at www.ode.ca .

The one-hour music special Ode à l’Acadie will be broadcast on Radio-Canada Acadie and ARTV at a later date.