For Violaine Corradi, the composer behind Cirque du
Soleil’s latest production to stop in Los Angeles,
“Varekai,” the challenge of creating original music for
a Cirque show means more than just finding the right notes.
“So many things can happen (during a live performance).
The acrobat might take a little longer before he’s done, so
the musicians constantly have to follow the movement,”
Corradi said. “The way I write the music is I have to give
them keys or doors, to switch from section A to section B, so
sometimes the band will have to look and say, “˜Okay, this is
taking a little longer, but it has to make sense musically.’
So they have plan A, plan B, plan C. It is very, very
hard.”
The inherent difficulty of producing a score that needs to be as
flexible as a contortionist has not deterred Corradi from becoming
a more regular fixture in Cirque du Soleil. Since completing work
on her first Cirque production, 1999’s “Dralion,”
Corradi spent a few years scoring IMAX films like “Great
North” and “Bears,” but agreed to take on the
challenge of composing for “Varekai” with little
hesitation.
“You know, the acrobats risk their lives,” Corradi
points out. “We don’t realize it, but they do. And us
as creators, we are asked to throw ourselves into the void like
them, and this is what I find so exciting (about) working with
Cirque du Soleil.”
Fourteen shows and almost 20 years since a group of Montreal
street performers first conceived of the possibility of a
re-imagined, commercially successful circus, Cirque du Soleil has
become synonymous with the most intricate and visually stunning
acrobatic performances in the world. But along with that kind of
marketplace dominance comes the inherent risk of saturation. There
are currently four other productions besides “Varekai”
touring the globe, along with two permanent shows in Las Vegas and
one at Walt Disney World in Orlando. A third Vegas show,
“Zumanity,” officially premieres in September.
Now that the Cirque style has become a more familiar language of
performance, the company’s creative team has adopted a wider
view of what kind of resources it can tap in an effort to keep the
company’s productions fresh and unique.
“If you look at Cirque’s history, for the first
eight productions, it was almost the same creative team that
developed (each of them),” said Director of Communications
Reneé-Calude Ménard. “In “˜Varekai,’ 50
percent of the creators are new, had never done a Cirque show.
It’s one of the intentions of Cirque for the future, the idea
being that we try to get as many creative people as possible to
come on board and bring another perspective.”
Tickets for “Varekai,” opening Sept. 12, are
available at www.cirquedusoleil.com.