How much Alegria is too much Alegria?
The Cirque du Soleil show, which premièred under the Big Top in Old Montreal in April 1994, has been performed over 6,600 times since then, both during its original Big Top run and then during a 4 1/2-year arena tour. It was seen by 14 million people in 255 cities around the world.
And now it’s coming back, with Alegria: In a New Light set to have its world première under the Big Top here on April 18, before heading out on what is expected to be a four-year North American road trip. It also plays Gatineau (starting Aug. 1) and Toronto (starting Sept. 12).
Some of the key players in the creative team behind the Alegria 2.0 reboot met with select media Tuesday morning at Cirque du Soleil’s world headquarters in north-end Montreal, notably director of creation Daniel Ross, musical director and arranger Jean-Phi Goncalves, costume designer Dominique Lemieux (who had the same job on the original production), set designer Anne-Séguin Poirier and acrobatic performance choreographer Émilie Therrien (who was an acrobat in the original production).
“In this case we’re really doing a rereading,” Ross said. “It’s as if I took a Michel Tremblay (play) from the 1970s. … I wouldn’t do it the same way. It would be a new director. It’s a little bit that principle applied to Alegria. It’s one of our classics and, like (all) classics, it can be revisited and reread by a different creative team.
“For us, what was interesting with Alegria is when we started digging in and looking at what the main themes of the show were, we figured out that it was still very (timely) and it was still something that was very touching in this day and age.
“It’s a show about the quest for power, it’s a show about the winds of change in society and it’s a show about the passage from darkness to light, and for us this was still a very current subject to talk about.”
All of the creators working on this new version of Alegria are quick to underline that it will be very different from the original show. They did keep in contact with some of the original creators, notably director Franco Dragone and Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, to ensure they don’t lose the core ingredients of the first production. But at the same time, they wanted to make sure it will click with audiences in 2019 and beyond.
For example, it will feature the original score from composer René Dupéré, maybe the most famous music ever produced by the Cirque. It is the Cirque’s bestselling album, and the title song was nominated for a Grammy. This time around, the music has been rearranged by Goncalves, who is a founding member of the bands Plaster and Beast and has served as musical director of the Série Hommage, the tribute Cirque shows presented every summer in Trois-Rivières. His goal was to make the music a little more accessible for today’s audience.
“It’s about taking these songs and adapting them to the new vision of the show,” Goncalves said. “Some of the songs are now coupled with different routines. … I am modernizing the music of René Dupéré from 25 years ago. Sometimes the choice of instrumentation was perfect for 1994 but hasn’t aged well with time. My job is to make it more current.”
The acrobatic acts will include some of the original numbers, though even those will be revamped, and a slew of new routines.
“Most of the show will be quite different, yet it will feel very familiar,” Ross said.
Some have suggested the Cirque is going back to Alegria because it lacks new ideas and is pandering to nostalgia.
“I know for a fact that we’re not running out of ideas,” Ross said. “There’s a lot of projects going out this year. … I think Alegria is also about nostalgia, and for sure people will be excited again to find that feeling. But we wanted to do it a different way.
“People can think what they want. For us, this project is super exciting. We feel we have a reason to do it that’s beyond business. It’s something artistic and it’s something that’s current. That’s the reason we’re doing it.”
THERE ARE OTHER VIDEOS TO SEE:
– https://youtu.be/lKBFZfLX_4w
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDdcFcjr-xQ
AND SOME COSTUME PICS
{ SOURCE: Montreal Gazette }
