Concert à Moscou

The comeback of «Notre Dame». It will happen later: the dense darkness of the auditorium, the growing intensity of the piano chords and the low, slightly hoarse voice of the performer who for many people epitomizes the character of Claude Frollo from the musical «Notre Dame de Paris», but right now Daniel Lavoie who is world-famous for his roles in the musicals «Notre Dame de Paris» and «The Little Prince» is preparing for his first concert on the Russian stage.

Daniel, were you surprised to receive an invitation to perform in Russia? Did you prepare in any way for your visit to an unfamiliar country?

To tell you the truth, I’ve been waiting for it for a while (laughing). I’ve been receiving numerous letters from my fans from your country, and I know that many people came to the French concerts, some people wrote to me through Facebook. As far as preparations go, I’ve read a lot about your country. I am not a fan of novels, so I am familiar only with the best and the most famous of your authors: Tolstoy, Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, but I like history books, and thanks to them I got acquainted with Russia. And of course, I heard stories from my friends who have already come here to give concerts, such as Garou and Bruno Pelletier.

Did you significantly adjust the program of your concert for the Russian audience?

Basically, no. I am true to my custom of performing alone with a piano and in my concerts I value most of all the opportunity to be one on one with the audience. I like this chamber quality, this sort of intimacy that arises during concerts like this. However today there will be something new. I know that the Russian audience knows me primarily because of the musical «Notre Dame de Paris», and therefore although I haven’t performed the arias from it for many years today I will «let on stage» my old friend, Claude Frollo. In the program there will also be several tried and true favorites, but in general I did not change anything.

As long as we are speaking about «Notre Dame de Paris», please tell us if the return of the original cast on stage is being planned.

Maybe, even sooner than you think (laughing). I won’t call myself either an optimist or a pessimist, because I accept every day the way it is. And from the point of view of a realist I can’t tell you anything specific right now, except that between us, the seven performers of the main characters, there is complete agreement about that issue.

Do you plan on participation in other similar projects or are you preparing a solo album?

Right now I am indeed working on a new album. Because I have a very thorough approach to my creative process, returning time after time to already processed material and bringing every detail to an ideal state, it takes me a long time to work on an album.I need to concentrate, so I lock myself indoors alone with my piano, shielding myself from the outside word for a pretty long period of time. Usually it’s about two years. So the new album will most likely come out either at the end of this year or at the beginning of the next one. As for other projects, recently my friends invited me to participate in the recording of the disc «Les chats de Paris», to sing for one of the cats. Right now we are recording its continuation, «Les chats de Montreal». So I continue to be a cat, as you can see.

Among the francophone public you are known not just as a performer, but also as a composer and a song writer, you often write for other singers. How do you choose who to write for?

The key word here is «love». I love writing for other people and decide who I’d like to work with depending on the personal rapport. Among them there are more female than male singers, it’s easier for me to work with women. But in general I write for those people for whom I have truly warm feelings and for my friends.

After you had made your career as a singer and a composer you became pretty famous as a film actor. How different is working in front of a camera from working in front of an audience and which one do you prefer?

The difference between shooting a film and a live performance is enormous. I came to film out of pure curiosity.To see what it’s about. I can’t say that I liked it a lot. On the film set it’s pretty boring, a lot of time is spent waiting. Wait, wait, wait… But performing in front of an audience – is a constant process, it’s communicating with the listeners one on one.

And one more question for you as for a person who has visited Moscow for the first time. Did you like this city?

Yes, I had an opportunity to walk around in the city the day before the concert, to see the sights. This city struck me right away by how it reminds one both of Europe and North America. But, unfortunately, Moscow, to my mind, has «caught» the same bug as the other big cities: it is oversaturated with traffic, with cars. All those streets that slice the city in different directions… When you travel, you start noticing things like that.

Interview by Ekaterina Lozovik. 

Photo by Konstantin Khvatov 

Translated by Anna None