The very majestic but austere Dôme des Invalides, in Paris, which notably houses the tomb of Napoleon, has been illuminated since Friday by multimedia projections from Moment Factory, which teamed up with the Troublemakers studio to compose the orchestral music for the immersive experience Will have.

Since its official launch, the rumor has been good and tickets are selling like hot cakes, we are told. Next week’s performances are sold out – around 500 seats are available per session.

France Info speaks of a “shattering fireworks display of colors and stories” and again of a “stunning creation which brings historical heritage and digital culture into dialogue”; The Parisian, a “flamboyant” spectacle; She writes that “the ornaments and tombs, barely lit, are both monumental and a touch mystical.” In short, the first echoes from the French press are good.

It was the French agency Cultival which contacted the two Montreal studios after seeing the screening of Aura at the Notre-Dame basilica in Montreal in 2019.

“They told us: “We have to have something like this in Paris.” They finally chose the Dôme des Invalides and obtained the agreement of the Army Museum, which is collaborating on the project,” says Marie-Pier Veilleux, spokesperson for Moment Factory, from Paris, a few hours before the premiere.

The two studios, which have worked together on around thirty projects since 2010, have therefore teamed up for this Parisian version of Aura.

“As soon as we created the show in Montreal, we knew that there would be other Aura elsewhere, in historic places,” says Ms. Veilleux. A bit like what we did with our Lumina journey. »

“We started in Coaticook, but today there are around twenty Lumina courses in Quebec and elsewhere in the world,” she continues.

Moment Factory began working on the project three years ago, deploying a contingent of 80 employees to create this immersive show with lasers and 3D video mapping – including some of the 25 employees from the Paris office.

All wires, projectors and speakers were hidden on site. “There was no question of this equipment lying around Napoleon’s tomb,” says Marie-Pier Veilleux. For example, we had to hide the projectors in boxes that were repainted to imitate the marble of the Dome, she illustrates, so there were a lot of considerations of this kind on the sidelines of the creative work. »

The result is worthy of the work that was put into the project, continues the spokesperson. “There’s a lot of wonder in people’s faces. We feel the emotion and the connection people have with the place that they discover in detail. It’s also the first time that the Dome is accessible to the public in the evening, so it’s pretty special. »

Marc Bell, met in his Montreal studios the day after his return from Paris, was also excited by his creative experience in the Dôme: around 45 minutes of original music, which accompanies the projections.

The co-founder of Troublemakers – with Jean-Sébastien Giard – composed the orchestral music with Frédéric Bégin from the first scenario developed by Moment and a bank of still images. Once the score was written, the music was performed – and recorded – by an ensemble of 36 musicians and a 16-voice choir. The Moment Factory animation work was done in a second phase.

“The place is still cold, so the music warms up the atmosphere,” says Marc Bell, who was part of the first incarnation of the funk group The Brooks.

One of the most important challenges for him: sound reverberation. “Each chord lasts 10 seconds! So, we had to work with this constraint. Think about a slower and larger orchestration, otherwise it wouldn’t have worked. We also opted for more dramatic music, with a lot of depth, which Europeans appreciate and even demand. »

Despite this challenge [of sound reverberation], the result is astonishing, according to Marc Bell.

The approximately 50-minute multimedia tour is divided into three: “the construction of the dome” during the reign of Louis XIV by architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart; “collective memory”, which allows us to understand how the building has survived time; and “the elevation of the Dome”, which allows us to fully appreciate the “magic” of this emblematic place in Paris.

There is no narration as such, but a few sentences appear on the walls, to situate the visitor.

“We start the route in the center of the dome, where there is Napoleon’s tomb,” explains Marc Bell, “then we move towards the four chapels, which are more introspective moments, then we return towards the center until the final through the different tables. There are a lot of people who have come to me to tell me how much the music has moved them. People who left very moved, who had goosebumps. »