Petite interview with... Richard Charest (Part 2) @ Seoul (ENGLISH) - Notre Dame de Paris Tour 2015

**The first part of the interview is here.**
**日本語版はこちらです。**

Ouf... It's almost two months but... here is the second part of the interview of Richard (Charest). Korean tour has already ended and now the Taiwanese tour has just begun! I imagine that four-month-period tour would be quite tough, but I really wish great success of the show.

In the latter half of the interview, I asked about the return of the original French version of Notre Dame de Paris, recent trends in French musicals and Richard's own musical "Rimbaud". My English translation is not so good, but I do hope you will enjoy it.
(Thank you my friend S and K for correcting my poor French!)

On y va!

Notre Dame de Paris Tour 2015
Good luck with Taiwan Tour!

******************* 

Firstly, I asked about how he felt about the return of the original French version and what the French language means to him. 

-   Cette fois, c'est en version originale c'est-à-dire française. Y a-t’il des différences en jouant en français et anglais? En tant que Québécois, que représente la langue française pour vous?  

‐　This time, it's in the original version, that is, French. When you play the role, is there any difference between in English and in French ? And, as a Quebecois, what does French language mean to you? 

R: Le spectacle a été créé en langue française donc toutes les paroles ont respecté la mélodie et les mélodies ont respecté les paroles donc ça a été créé pour que ça sonne de cette façon. Non seulement c'est agréable à entendre parce que la langue française est quand même une très jolie langue, mais pour un interprète de langue française c'est encore plus important de pouvoir défendre le spectacle dans la langue originale... Et pour avoir l'occasion de le faire en anglais pendant deux ou trois ans, ça a été un bonheur de revenir, on se rend compte à quel point le spectacle original est de bonne qualité. Donc c'est très important. En plus en tant que Québécois, sur un continent où il y'a très peu de francophones, il y'a la présence américaine et Canada anglais donc on n'est pas très nombreux en français donc on met encore plus d’importance à défendre la langue. Donc effectivement c'est très très important.  

R: The musical was created in the French language so all of the lyrics respected the melody and the melodies respected the lyrics so it was created to sound in such way. Not only is it pleasant to hear, because the French language is indeed a very beautiful language but for a performer of French language, it's even more important to be able to protect the musical in original language... And as we had an occasion to perform it in English for two or three years, it was really fortunate to return (in original language), I realized how great the quality of the original musical was.  So it's very important. Moreover, as a Quebecois, on the continent where there are very few francophones, there are the presence of the States and the anglophone Canada so there are not so many people who speak French so we put even more emphasis on protecting the language. So actually it's very very important. 

I cannot agree with him more about what is said above about Notre Dame. When I watched it at Sejong Centre, I felt that the music and lyrics (language) were complementary and almost  inseparable. I believe every language has its own "aura" or "unique world" and personally, the French language is really eloquent when one tries to express his/her own emotion. Like I have written in the previous post, it was almost like the language talked to me with full of emotions and penetrated myself. It was something that I had never felt when I watched the English version.  

The question about Quebecois was in fact just out of my curiosity, but I always had an impression that Richard had a deep respect for his mother tongue French. And I was also curious about the unique Quebecois culture, which is a mixture of French and Anglo Saxon culture, so I continued to ask about what it means to live in two languages.

Richard during the interview (Photo Credit: Binna)

-   Vous êtes Canadien, donc vous pourriez jouer un rôle en anglais. Mais est-ce que vous préférez jouer des rôles en français?   

- You are Canadian, so you could play a role in English. But do you prefer to play the roles in French?

R: D'abord, c'est une opportunité professionnelle, c'est curieux parce que j'avais cette conversation  a tout à l'heure dans la loge : quelqu'un qui me demandait si je souhaitais commencer à travailler en anglais à Toronto… donc Canada au anglais. C'est quelque chose que j'aimerais faire pour découvrir mais quand l’opportunité de faire Notre Dame de Paris se présente, on saisit l'occasion et on y va. En plus le rôle est magnifique, la langue aussi... moi j'écris en plus des chansons, j'écris des pièces de théâtre et livrets de spectacle... c'est capital la langue française pour moi. Donc avoir cette possibilité-là de venir dans des pays non-francophones et de présenter et défendre un rôle pareil c'est une chance incroyable.

R: First, it's a professional opportunity. It's curious because I had a conversation in the dressing room a little while ago that I was asked if I wished to start to work in English in Toronto... so anglophone Canada. It's something that I would like to do for discovering (a new opportunity) but when the opportunity to play Notre Dame de Paris is presented, I took that opportunity and here I am. Besides the role is great and the language too... In addition, I myself write songs, I write the play and the script of musical... The language is capital, for me. So having such possibility to come to the non-French speaking countries and to present and protect the same role is incredibly fortunate.      

    

-  A l’avenir, est-ce que vous souhaitez jouer d'autres rôles en anglais, comme à Broadway ou au West End?   

- In the future, do you wish to play other roles in English, like in Broadway or in West End? 

R: Oui, oui. J'aimerais beaucoup parce que je découvre que le répertoire francophone de comédie musicale est beaucoup plus limité que celui anglophone avec Broadway ou West End... Donc il y'a des rôles sublimes dans Les Misérables ou Phantom of the Opera ou Jekyll et Hyde. Il y'a tellement des jolis rôles pour des hommes donc j'aimerais bien. En plus quand on vieillit, il y'a beaucoup plus de possibilités en anglais qu’en français. C'est-à-dire que dans les rôles comme Notre Dame de Paris, je pourrais pas faire Gringoire encore très très longtemps, d'ailleurs je ne pourrai plus vraiment faire Phœbus non plus, on a besoin d’un jeune soldat donc il y'a pas beaucoup d'autre possibilités après. Ici je suis encore trop jeune pour faire Frollo, et je serais bientôt trop vieux pour faire Gringoire, donc il y'a un genre d’espace où en anglais ils appellent ça le "No man's land". En comédie musicale, le "No man's land" c'est vraiment l’endroit où en tant qu’interprète tu sais plus si t'est trop vieux ou pas assez vieux, mais en anglais il y'a quand même pas mal d'autres possibilités donc j'aimerais explorer aussi de prochains lieux.   

R:Yes, yes. I would really love to because I find that the francophone repertories of musicals are much more limited that of anglophone with Broadway or West End... So there are sublime roles in Les Misérables or Phantom of the Opera or Jekyll and Hyde. There are so many beautiful roles for the people so I would love to. Besides, when you get old, there are much more possibilities in English than in French. That is, in the roles of Notre Dame de Paris, I would not be able to play Gringoire forever, besides I would not really be able to play Phœbus any more -because we need a young soldier- so there are not so many possibilities after that. Now, I'm still too young to play the role of Frollo and soon I will be too old to play Gringoire... There is a kind of place where in English it's called "No man's land (laugh)".  In the world of musical, "No man's land" is really a place where as a performer,  you don't really know you're too old or not old enough. But in English, there are still other possibilities that are not so bad.  So I would also like to explore the next place.   

Credit Photo: Binna

I believe it was a bit nosy question (Desolée Richard!) but I was always wondering how he thinks about playing the role in English. I was a bit surprised at his answer but like he had said, the works, audience and market of French musicals are by far not comparable to that of Anglophone musicals. So it was a quite natural answer I guess. In fact I would love to see him in other roles either in English or French in the future.

And when I hear him saying "when you get old..." I was petrified! I mean... I know everyone gets old. No exception. But probably this is the last word that I had expected from Richard lol As a fan, it was quite heartbreaking to think about "the last time", but his remark reminded me of the famous saying in Japanese "Ichi-go ichi-e" meaning "treasure every encounter, for it may never happen again (so you have to make most of it)". Every show appears just once, because each performance is actually a unique one, so in fact it will never happen again. Each scene, each moment is just precious. So it made me feel that I had to engrave every moment in my heart and feel grateful for being there.

Richard talked about playing the role of Frollo, and of course he is still too young to play the role (besides, now M. Robert Marien is just spectacular!!!), but if he ever plays the role Frollo in the future, I bet he is going to be a quite handsome (and perhaps hot) Frollo! Aside from the jokes, I think he will be able to play Frollo's troubled yet complex persona beautifully (I imagine that his rendition of "Tu Vas Me Détruire" will nail it!). Besides, if this will come true, he will probably become the first singer who plays the three roles in Notre Dame de Paris!

His reference to "no man's land" was also quite interesting for me. I have a huge respect for the artists. Because, as you know, it is quite different from the life as 9-5 worker like me.  It is quite a tough world to make one's own life just by his/her talent. I simply admire their strong passion, will and the power/courage to believe in his/herself.

Next, I asked about the recent trend of French musicals. I am just a fan of French musicals so probably it was a bit arrogant to say this, but in general I believe that the recent commercially successful French musicals have a tendency that the "showiness" is much valued than the "story telling". Richard often talked about the importance of the story in his musical (Rimbaud Spectacle) so I asked a little bit about it.

Richard at Singapore tour in 2013

-  La prochaine question concerne la récente tendance des comédies musicales françaises. Quand j'étais à Paris, je parlais avec Arnaud de ce sujet mais je crois que les Comédies musicales françaises concernent de plus en plus les ados ou les enfants. J'ai vu par exemple 1789, où  les effets spéciaux, le décor, les costumes et la danse sont magnifiques mais où l'histoire n'était pas assez transmise. Les chansons sont également plutôt tournées vers la variété française. J’ai l’impression qu’il s’agit d’un "concert with the costumes"... Vous comprenez?   

- The next question is concerned with the recent trend of French musicals. When I traveled in Paris last year, I talked a little bit about it with Arnaud (*Arnaud Kerane. Co-writer of the Rimbaud Spectacle Musical. I met him in Paris last December for asking about their musical.). I believe that French musicals concern more and more young people and children.  For example, I saw 1789 (*French musical about French Revolution performed in 2012 and 2013. I watched this musical in Paris.), and I was quite impressed with the special effects, costumes and dance but I had an impression that the story was less payed attention. And the songs are also more like French pops. For me, it looked like a "concert with the costumes"... Do you understand what I'm saying?

R: Oui, oui oui. Vous avez raison. Absolument. Parce que après cette question de goût, on peut aimer ou ne pas aimer les spectacles francophones, mais c'est un tour de chants pop avec une histoire qui est souvent pas très mis en évidence, ce qui importe c'est pas nécessairement que les gens dans la salle comprennent toute l’histoire, comment ça se passe, les personnages et interaction… il faut avoir de très bonnes chansons qui passent à la radio, il faut avoir des jeunes interprètes qui arrivent d'émissions de variété et qui sont un petit peu connus, des gens qui ont des fan clubs assez massifs… c'est une autre façon de faire, c'est vrai qu'avec Arnaud, on privilégie l’histoire, comme dans Rimbaud.    

R: Yes, yes. You're right. Absolutely. Because after all it's the question of the taste. Whether you like the French musicals or not, it's the pop music performance with the story which is often not very clearly demonstrated. What is important is not necessarily that the audiences understand all of the story or what is going on, the characters and interaction... You need good songs which can be broadcast on the radio or you need young performers who appear in the pop music programs who are a little bit famous or the people who have fairly big fan club... That's another thing to do and it's true that with Arnaud, we privilege the story like in "Rimbaud".  

 Great memories, but...

Just let me make it clear. I LOVE French musicals. And I LOVE entertainment and French pops. Otherwise I would never have been all the way to Paris to see the French musicals! Indeed, watching the "1789 Les Amants de la Bastille" was one of the greatest memories for me. I really enjoyed this musical. I was mesmerized by the level of its perfectionism as an artistic entertainment. Nonetheless, from the perspective of the "story telling", compared with the pioneers of French musicals such as Starmania or Notre Dame de Paris, the philosophical essence is apparently weakened.

It is quite understandable when you think of the fact that the main audiences are young people and families (yes, we need a cool hero and a beautiful heroine!), but it would be nice if we could see more musicals intended for mature audiences and plus, French is the country of philosophy so it would not be a bad idea to shed the light on such aspect, I believe (which I think quite distinctive aspect of French musicals.  It is phenomenal given the fact that the Notre Dame de Paris make a good balance between entertainment and such philosophical aspects.).  And speaking of the songs, there is no problem for French pop (indeed very hip and I love them), but sometimes I feel like it's too pop for musical numbers (that's why I said in the question "Concert with the costumes".). But it is all about the question of the "taste" so this is just my personal opinion.   

And once again, Richard articulated the importance of the story in his musical. Personally I really admire such artistic posture that they put emphasis on the story and the words (lyrics.).

He wrote the lyrics of his own musical "Rimbaud" 

After that, Richard talked about his own musical "Rimbaud Spectacle Musical"

- Arnaud m'a dit que c'est pour ça qu’on a créé le spectacle de Rimbaud.   

- Arnaud said to me that that's why we created the musical of Rimbaud.

R: Oui, pour l’histoire, pour mettre l'histoire en avant. Le personnage est fabuleux, Rimbaud historiquement c’est fabuleux l’importance qu'il a eu dans l’histoire de la littérature. Il y a tellement de jolies petites histoires derrière la grande avec la maman, le professeur, le meilleur ami avec Verlaine... Voilà nous, c'est notre orientation : on veut que les gens, après deux heures, aient entendu de jolie mélodies et qu’ils puissent s'identifier à certains personnages et ressortent de là en se disant "Ah, tiens,  j'ai appris quelques chose." Je me suis souvenu que (surtout pour les francophones) Rimbaud est un objet d’'étude à l'école, même si on ne le connaît pas très bien, tout le monde sait, tout francophone sait qui est Arthur Rimbaud. Donc on essaye de profiter de tout ça.  

R: Yes, for the story, we put the story first. This person (Rimbaud) is legendary, Rimbaud is historically incredibly important in the history of the literature. There are so many beautiful little stories behind the great story, with the mother, the teacher, the best friend, with Verlaine... So, that's our orientation; we want people, after two hours, to have heard the beautiful melodies and to be able to identify oneself with certain characters and go out from the hall thinking: "Ah, well I learned something". I remembered that (especially for the francophone) Rimbaud is an object of the study at school. Even if they don't know him really well, everyone knows, every francophone knows, who Arthur Rimbaud is. So we try to make most of it.  

Arnaud Kerane, co-writer of "Rimbaud"
I met him in Paris last December.

When I saw Arnaud in Paris, he said that he created this musical because the story was so interesting. So I asked Richard about it. One of the interesting things was "many little stories behind the great story", I guess. In fact I thought the exact the same thing as Richard. Such petites histoires are really touching and poignant and often really "dramatic" (The avanture with the poet Verlaine is quite well known but the confrontation with his mother Vitalie, the strong bond and subsequent rupture with his teacher/mentor Izambard, friendship with the best friend Ernest as well as the pride as a woman (Vitalie and Mathilde (Verlaine's wife)) are also the episodes that should be sheded light on.) Over all, the real life story of Rimbaud is "stranger the story" but when you look at each of these little stories, I think you can identify yourself with at least one story or another (In my case, the conflict between Vitalie and Arthur was quite familiar to me.). In another post I wrote about the lyrics of "Vitalie" (I added a bit of annotation of the lyrics.), so if you are interested, please see here. You will have a glimpse of such little story in the musical.

In addition, as Richard said, in French speaking regions, Rimbaud is quite famous, but in Japan or other Asian regions, I assume things are a bit different. Last year (2014) a play "Total Eclipse" was performed in Japan (Directed by a famous Japanese stage director Yukio Ninagawa. This play is based on the famous film "Total Eclipse" in which Rimbaud was played by Dicaprio.)  so the works and the life story of Rimbaud were not "minor" story (in fact for certain people, he seems to gain cult popularity) but it is not the story that "everyone knows", I believe. To tell the truth I myself, before learning about the musical, I scarcely knew about him except for the fact that he was a French poet. 

But when I searched a bit about him on the Internet, his works were quite sensational (although it is difficult to understand) and his life was utterly interesting. Everything is so dramatic and complicated. And I believe, such profoundness of the human story will transcend the frontier and language, and eventually be transmitted to the heart of the people. So I think there is a good reason that the musical should be shown to the public.

If you are interested, I put some photos when I made a trip to his home town called Charleville (Here).

"Charleville Mon Soupir" written by Arnaud

The next question was about the double sided nature of Rimbaud. Because Arnaud said to me that Rimbaud was really smart but he was canny and sometimes even dubious as well. That was quite interesting remark for me, so I asked Richard about it.

-  Arnaud m'a raconté que Rimbaud avait beaucoup de talent et était très intelligent mais utilisait également ses facultés pour manipuler les autres (comme ce fut le cas pour sa mère ou son professeur). On peut penser qu’il avait deux personnalités. Qu'est-ce que vous en pensez?   

- Arnaud told me that Rimbaud had a lot of talent and very intelligent but he also used these abilities for manipulating others, as was the case of his mother and his teacher. Can we say that he had a double personality? What do you think about it? 

R: Bah, oui, c'est ce qui arrive souvent quand les gens sont très très intelligents, ils ont toujours la possibilité de manipuler les autres pour arriver à leurs fins. Dans le cas de Rimbaud, il avait un objectif en tête et peu importe les moyens, il était prêt à prendre toutes les dispositions nécessaires pour y arriver, quitte à ce que ça soit un petit peu compliqué au niveau des relations personnelles.   

R: Well, yes, that's something that often happens to very intelligent people. They always have a possibility to manipulate others for achieving their goals. In the case of Rimbaud, he had an objective in his head and the way (how to achieve it) was of little importance. He was ready for making every necessary arrangement to succeed and he leaves behind the things that are a little bit complicated at the level of the personal relationships.

This particular "who cares" attitude of Rimbaud can be interpreted as arrogant but at the same time, this attitude of "detachement" is perhaps what everyone secretly dreams of, because Rimbaud is in a sense, ultimate free person (actually he uses the word "liberté libre (free freedom)"). He always followed his instinct and desire, which only mattered for him, perhaps. For most of the people, I believe, it is quite difficult to behave like Rimbaud: "I don't care what other people think, I'll do what I want". And the frictions caused by such attitude would often cost a lot. Nevertheless, this "wickedness" or "mischievousness" is also seductive and appealing to some extent.

Musée Rimbaud

Lastly, I asked Richard why he was so drawn to the charm of Rimbaud.

-  Pour vous, qu'est-ce qui vous attire le plus chez Rimbaud?  

-  For you, what is the most attractive point about Rimbaud?

R: Moi ce qui m'a toujours séduit (j’en ai parlé plusieurs fois avec Arnaud) dans le personnage, c'est le fait qu’un si jeune homme, un si jeune garçon prenne la décision de devenir un génie, ou une figure importante de la littérature… il avait une théorie et il croyait… et au bout de quelques années il se rend compte que ça ne tient pas : il prend la décision d'arrêter d'écrire. Cette faculté qu’avait un jeune homme de 20/21 ans de prendre cette décision de faire "non, c'est non, je change d’idée je fais autre chose"... J'aurais rêvé avoir ce pouvoir-là, même sur ma propre vie de dire "ça c'est bon pour moi " , " ça ne l’est plus, je pars. "... Ce détachement,  je l'ai toujours admiré chez Rimbaud en dehors de la partie littéraire et de la beauté de ses textes et de la figure de précurseur qu’il a représenté, d'avoir inventé des formes nouvelles et tout ça… Cette capacité-là de prendre la décision : "qu'est-ce qui est bon pour moi ? Même si ça déplait à tout le monde même si c'est ça blesse tout le monde je m'en fous, J'y vais." C’est vraiment ce que je préfère chez lui.

R: For me, what always seduced me  (I talked about it with Arnaud many times) in the personage was the fact that such young man, such young boy takes a decision to become a genius or important figure in the literature... he had a theory and he believed it... and after a few years, he realizes that he doesn't care about it; he takes a decision to stop writing. This ability of a 20-21 year-old boy to take a decision to do "No, no, I change ideas, I'll do other things." ... I had dreamt of having that ability even in my own life to say "that's good for me.", "that's not good for me any more, I'll quit"... this detachment, that's what I always admired about Rimbaud except for the literary part and the beauty of his texts and the precursor figure that he represented and having invented the new forms and so on... This capacity of taking a decision: "What is good for me? Even if it offends everyone or hurts everyone, I don't care. I'll do it." That's really what I prefer about him.  

   

When I asked about Rimbaud, Richard gave me an answer with his bright eyes. His eyes told me how passionate and enthusiastic about his own musical "Rimbaud".

Rimbaud abruptly abandoned his literary career despite the fact that he had huge talent. He embarked on new life and traveled all over the world until he had become fatally ill. Like Richard said, it is quite stunning that a just 20 year-old boy  makes such big decision without any hesitation. Rimbaud was a true "rebel" and lived life to the fullest as his instinct led him. Listening to Richard's answer, I felt this is also exactly what I loved about Rimbaud. I really hope that one day, I could see "his story" through the musical "Rimbaud".

According to the article in Huffington Post (Here), Richard will probably play the role "Verlaine" and maybe it will be a good opportunity to discover his new talent as an artist.

Thank you Richard for such an interesting story!