Celine Dion is back onstage. Naturally, she chose Paris.

PARIS — Which Celine Dion would crook up astatine her Paris comeback show? The powerhouse belter? The delicate balladeer? The unpredictable ad-libber?

But the existent question successful the backmost of galore people’s minds astatine Plenitude Arena connected Saturday was whether she would crook up astatine all.

As the minutes ticked by past the scheduled commencement clip of 8 p.m., it was hard not to deliberation astir the wrenching vulnerability the vocalist exposed successful the documentary “I Am: Celine Dion,” successful which she elaborate the interaction of her conflict with a uncommon neurological information known arsenic stiff idiosyncratic syndrome. Sure, she had performed astatine the Paris Olympics opening ceremonial 2 years ago, but that was conscionable 1 song. Saturday’s would beryllium her archetypal afloat performance successful six years, kicking disconnected a drawstring of 26 shows successful a venue holding 35,000 people.

Then the lights went down astatine 8:48 p.m. Dion dilatory walked onto the gigantic signifier successful a achromatic gown and opened with “On Ne Change Pas” (“We Do Not Change”).

While fans successful France and Quebec thin to cognize Dion’s repertoire successful some French and English, astir American listeners are unaware of her French songs. She is bilingual and bicultural, arsenic if she were 2 stars successful one, with chiseled careers that complement each other.

On Saturday night, it was evident from which broadside the emotion was flowing. Dion did astir of her signifier banter successful French, which she grew up speaking successful Charlemagne, a tiny municipality adjacent Montreal, and she sang successful French for astir two-thirds of the setlist.

Dion, 58, looked defiant yet fragile. Her acquainted dependable had a burnished patina that seemed to uncover a interaction of nerves and a full batch of roiling feelings. She mislaid her composure during that archetypal fig and had to concisely halt singing. “I had promised myself not to cry,” she told the assemblage astatine the extremity of the song. “I don’t support my promises.”

That Dion was making her instrumentality to evening-length unrecorded show successful Paris alternatively of Las Vegas, wherever she lives and has held 2 successful, lucrative yearslong residencies, whitethorn person partially been a logistical prime — Paris, aft all, is simply a proscription hub easy accessible from astir the world.

But France is simply a immense woody to Dion and was the archetypal state to clasp her extracurricular Canada. Conversely, she is simply a immense woody to France: A play beforehand leafage of the Libération paper asked whether she would “save the 2027 budget” and an nonfiction wrong cited a survey estimating that her performance tally could make up to “1 cardinal euros successful economical benefits for France.”

The amusement included immoderate of Dion’s biggest English-language hits, similar “My Heart Will Go On,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “I’m Alive” — the past 1 inserted into a medley that besides included Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” and Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).”

“I was pleasantly amazed erstwhile she did ‘All by Myself,’” said Pauline Martin, an assemblage subordinate from the greater Paris area, who confessed she had spent fractional the amusement crying. “It proved she hasn’t mislaid her voice. It was a symbol, arsenic if she was telling america ‘I’m back.’”

But the biggest responses were reserved for the French-language material, including the wildly fashionable “Pour Que Tu m’Aimes Encore” (which assemblage members reprised successful unison aboriginal connected arsenic they walked to the subway) and the rollicking duet “J’Irai Où Tu Iras,” a classical astatine French weddings that Dion performed with Jordan Lévesque, a caller backup singer.

In opposition to her English-language style, which is much extroverted and flamboyant, the French tunes gully from styles similar chanson and the soft-pop genre known arsenic variété, with an accent connected storytelling that pulls listeners adjacent alternatively than stunning them into awe with vocal pyrotechnics.

After front-loading the acceptable with slower warm-up numbers, Dion seemed to summation successful assurance Saturday, gathering up to 1 of her epic unrecorded staples (even if it was decidedly little over-the-top than usual, marking a instrumentality of sorts to her early-career, much blimpish singing style).

A gospel choir came onstage for a segment, adding sonic majesty and oomph to tracks similar “Love Can Move Mountains.” The acceptable incorporated tremendous concrete-looking slabs and stout columns that moved astir to alternately exposure and fell the band, and looked similar thing an avant-garde sculptor mightiness person cooked up for a brutalist mentation of “Dune.” Interstitial videos of Dion traipsing crossed a sandy godforsaken furthered that impression.

“There is benignant of similar this opera diva creation to her, this benignant of grande dame,” said the show’s originative director, Willo Perron, who has worked connected Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter circuit and Rihanna’s halftime extravaganza astatine the 2023 Super Bowl. “And I wanted her to spell each the mode to that, spell wholly into that role.” The opera notation was driven location successful 1 of the evening’s astir jaw-dropping moments: a show of “Ebben? Ne andrò lontana” from Catalani’s “La Wally,” an aria everlastingly associated with Maria Callas.

But the singer’s instrumentality is however she tin equilibrium outsize emotions with simplicity. “At the aforesaid time,” Perron besides said of Dion, “there is this endearing — and this is precise overmuch a French Canadian property — precise down-home thing.”

That second broadside is simply a immense portion of Dion’s appeal, making her person to Dolly Parton than to, say, Beyoncé oregon Mariah Carey successful presumption of her narration with her audience. Notably, some she and Parton grew up successful families of humble means and contempt their wealthiness (and, successful Dion’s case, emotion for experimental high-end couture), they task an earthy spontaneity that feels genuine alternatively than hatched by societal media teams.

You could acquisition that relatability successful the mates of weeks starring up to the archetypal Paris show, erstwhile Dion would bent retired with the fans waiting extracurricular her edifice precocious astatine night. She would crook up good past midnight and chat for a while, looking flooded arsenic her admirers serenaded her with her ain songs, oregon dancing similar everybody’s favourite kooky relative. You got the feeling that though she is light-years distant from her hardscrabble upbringing, she has retained a cardinal structural integrity.

“She has a narration with the signifier and her assemblage that is authentic,” said Thomas Jolly, who directed the Olympics opening ceremony. “You mightiness presume that artists are ever performing, creating characters. But with Celine, it’s arsenic if there’s lone herself. And she herself is enough.”

This nonfiction primitively appeared in The New York Times.