2023-04-16 20:05:00
“’Notre Dame de Paris’ is like a cultural heritage of musical performances. There are a lot of fans who watch ‘N Cha’, and although it’s a work that everyone knows, I’m worried regarding how to surprise and move it. So, I am putting my heart and soul into this audition.”
Original producer Nicolas Tala visited Korea ahead of the Korean performance of “Notre Dame de Paris,” one of the most representative French musicals, in January next year. It is to find the protagonists of the first Korean performance in six years. After conducting an on-site face-to-face audition at the Chungmu Art Center for 5 days from the 10th to the 14th, they departed once more.
We met on the 13th at the Chungmu Art Center in Jung-gu, Seoul, and said, “I’m having a long day every day.”
Auditions for all roles are divided into actors and dancers due to the nature of French musicals, which separate singing and dancing. Actors (singers) go through the first video audition and face-to-face for the second, and dancers, acrobats, and breakers go through first and second face-to-face auditions. Afterwards, the final workshop is held to match and check each other’s tone and harmony. 1,300 people (1,000 singers and 300 dancers) applied for this audition.
Audition is the process of persuading the production team before meeting the audience. He said, “We have to be persuaded so the audience will be convinced. First of all, vocal (dance) skills must be solid. And emotions that can impress are important.”
“You have to be able to drag me right into the story with just your voice. I memorize everything, but when I sing in Korean, I don’t know every single word, so the power to make people listen to the song is important.”
He also told an episode that happened at the actual audition site. He emphasized, “What ‘Notre Dame de Paris’ pursues is not simply visual beauty or coolness, but living emotions.”
“I have to express the intimacy of each character well, such as the pain of ‘Quasimodo’ the hunchback or the agony of ‘Frollo’ the bishop. I was auditioning yesterday, and the three actors only sang songs that looked so cool, so I pushed for it. They said they were sweating, breathing fast, and that their heart was regarding to explode. This work is like life. It doesn’t flow in a set order. Push it to the limit and see if it shows a true side that goes beyond the mold.”
For ‘Notre Dame de Paris’, Korea is like a ‘second home’. Since its premiere in France in 1998, it has met 15 million audiences in 23 countries around the world. In Korea, following its premiere in 2005, it has been loved for 18 years by steadily uploading original visits to Korea and Korean performances.
“I come here almost every two years since 2005, and the experience is special each time. The enthusiastic reaction of the audience does not stop. In 2016 (in Korea), the cumulative audience exceeded 1 million, but this level of success is probably only in France, the birthplace of the composer, Italy (premiered in 2002), and Korea. My passport has the most Korean stamps on it.”
Even if you come up with different languages, the barrier is quickly broken down. “No matter what language you perform in the world, the stage is the same. It is to the point that people who saw it in 1998 and the audience who will see it in 2024 saw the same performance,” he said. I just care that the lyrics fit well with the music and sound smooth like French.”
Nicolas Tala is the son of producer Charles Tala (who passed away in 2020 at the age of 79). After majoring in economics, he worked in the financial industry, joined in 2000 at the suggestion of his father, and led the full-fledged advancement into the overseas stage. For him, ‘Notre Dame de Paris’ is the first project he has a lot of affection for, and it’s a work that makes him want to fly higher.
“Through my father, I learned how to work as a producer, respect artists and work in a balanced way. I used my major to reflect a managerial perspective on the project. My father has the instinctive gambler temperament, and I am the bright and rational type with numbers. My father originally announced that he would retire early in his mid-50s, but with this work, he had unexpected great success and continued to work. (Laughs)”
Last year, an original performance was performed on the New York stage for the first time. With a successful response, we are planning another US performance this summer. “As Corona 19 is over, there are currently a lot of requests for world tours. It is full by 2025,” he said.
“It is an adventure to turn an idea into an actual creation and meet an audience. If that succeeds, it’s a great pleasure for me as a producer. Also, it’s really rewarding to upload an existing work to a new country and see the moving faces of the audience I meet for the first time. I have never been to South America, and not even in Germany next to France.”
He said he would like to present other French musicals in Korea. He is promoting original performances of ‘Don Juan’ and ‘Mozart Opera Rock’. The French national musical ‘Starmania’, which premiered in 1979, is also being put up as a new production and is planning to advance overseas, including Korea.
“’Notre Dame de Paris’ paved the way for French works to go abroad. It was a work that brought pride in being able to hit the world. It has become a world-class musical, to the point where it is difficult to call it a French musical. We always want to give the audience the feeling that they had a special experience when watching this performance.”
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