Remembering Leonard

Today is the tenth anniversary of the death of Leonard Cohen.

Mont Royal Cemetery

There have been many events in Montreal during the past few weeks to commemorate the man and his music. 

At The Segal Centre I saw The Secret Chord, a piece that combined quotes from his writing and interviews with performances of his most well-know songs. It was a delightfully exuberant production in the little theatre located in one of Montreal's Jewish neighbourhoods, quite close to my home. The performers from the Soulpepper Theatre Company took turns at interpreting the songs in unusual ways and the band was excellent. Dance Me to the End of Love was particularly well done, played like a Klezmer folk song with the tempo increasing and increasing - the clarinet playing by Jacob Gorzhaltsan was just incredible. I learned that Cohen's inspiration for the song were the Jewish musicians pressed into playing in the Holocaust's death camps to comfort the dying. A frisson passed through the audience, dispelled by us all singing Hallelujah at the end. It was a heart-warming evening.

At Théâtre St-Denis it was Leonard's son Adam who headlined a show he called Everybody Knows. He played the songs simply: himself on vocals and acoustic guitar, his son Cassius on bass, a violinist, and two backing singers. The interpretations were close to the originals. Adam Cohen's voice is remarkably similar to his father's - as it was in the 1980s - and the result was an intimate and moving show. He played all the favourites. For an encore, he reminded us that Leonard had declared a moratorium on anyone singing Hallelujah, but that he would always make an exception for Rufus Wainwright. That was the cue for the arrival of Rufus on stage and his performance was glorious. At the end Adam Cohen asked for requests and someone in the front row asked for The Partisan. When he couldn't remember the words beyond a couple of the French verses he asked the man in the front row to come up on stage. It was an elderly gentleman named Dominic. From Dublin! He sang the English verses, a wobbly but pleasing tenor, and got a rapturous reception from the packed theatre. That was the evening completed for me.

So Leonard might be ten years gone but he feels very present in Montreal.

Mural on Rue Crescent

In all the posts and articles about him today, I was delighted to see him being interviewed in French on Radio-Canada, a brief recording of a moment in 1985. As a Montrealer I knew he must have spoken French but had never heard him before.