Klô Pelgag's Abracadabra Spectacle at Francos
The artist delivered an immersive operatic show Friday at Place des Festivals, with floating choreography, live GoPro angles, and appearances from Paul Piché.
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Klô Pelgag transformed the Place des Festivals into an otherworldly baroque dreamscape Friday evening, commanding a stage design that seemed to blur the line between constraint and liberation.
Despite rain that fell throughout the day, a devoted crowd gathered for what was billed as one of the final performances of her touring show Abracadabra — a spectacle built around songs from her fourth album of the same name. The production ran 90 minutes.
The staging itself became a character: a rolling staircase let Pelgag leap and descend; wheeled keyboards flowed with the emotional arc of each song. But the evening's technical centerpiece was a live GoPro camera, its feed projected on a screen behind the stage. At one point during "Coupable," Pelgag lay on the stage, filming herself from above. On "Lettre à une jeune poète," her daughter appeared with the camera, offering moments of intimate perspective — the world through a child's eyes, as Pelgag sang.
Negative filters and other effects layered the visual experience without overwhelming the music, which anchored every moment. A duo of keyboardists — Lysandre Ménard and Virginie Reid — drove the sound, while guitarist Joseph Marchand accompanied her on a stripped-down rendition of the new song "Le roi de la montagne."
The setlist wove between tender songs like "Sans visage" and lyrically intricate numbers such as "Décembre," which experiments with noise and layered texture. One unforgettable image: Pelgag perched on a bandmate's shoulders, hovering above the crowd while singing "Les puits de lumière," her voice pure and soaring across the wet plaza.
A brief surprise appeared in the form of Paul Piché, who walked onstage, embraced Pelgag, and left without singing — a moment of unscripted warmth that underscored the evening's emotional intimacy.