♪ Alegría ♪
- It’s a legendary show. - Yeah.
Like we both feel like it’s such a huge honor for us
to even be considered.
Alegría is the biggest hit of Cirque du Soleil.
Today, we’re recording the vocal track of the Alegría song.
It’s a risky task.
♪ Alegría,
Como la luz de la vida,
Alegría,
Come un assalto di gioia ♪
Can you try to play the inspiration for Alegría I asked you to compose?
That’s exactly what Alegría is,
you see?
OK, thanks. I noted it.
You see the direction we’re taking, right?
Now, we’re getting somewhere.
Finally, it’s crystal clear.
Obviously, since Alegría
is the biggest hit of Cirque du Soleil,
we wanted to draw upon René Dupéré’s music,
which is truly breathtaking,
with melodies people still remember 25 years later.
So, Jean-Phi is revisiting and rearranging René’s music.
They both met several times and René loves what we’re doing.
Our objective is to update all of that a little,
so we’re spending lots of time taking the songs apart.
We have the original song,
then I kind of break it down
and put it back together differently.
What inspires me?
It’s pretty much case by case.
Sometimes, it can be a description from Jean-Guy,
the director,
who explains the setting for me.
He uses a lot of gestures when explaining things.
Then it turns into a more techno sound.
Sometimes it’s the acrobatic act
to which a song will be paired.
As this point of the creative process,
I look around and draw inspiration from acrobatic acts.
But then there’s also some back-and-forth
between acrobats and the soundtrack,
so I tweak things a bit to really bring out the emotions,
so that both elements enhance each other.
Today, we’re recording the vocal track of the Alegría song.
That’s something, right?
So yeah, this is our first time.
Yes, it’s our first time singing together
and we were really happy when we met.
It was like, immediate connection there.
- Holà. - Holà.
We’re recording Irene and Virginia at the same time.
We’re trying both at the same time.
Because at this point,
there’s a kind of battle, or...
Yeah, let’s call it a battle.
They’re squaring off against each other a little,
but they’re actually complementing each other.
♪ Come la rabbia di amar ♪
♪ There is a love in me raging. ♪
♪ Come la rabbia di amar ♪
♪ There is a love in me raging. ♪
Alegría it’s, it’s talking about resilience,
that’s what we, we’re talking about and,
you can be stronger if you balance yourself.
So I think the black and the white fold…
Balance each other, yeah.
…in the gray color, you know, it’s like...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah we, we hug like one.
Together is better, we are one, we are one.
♪Alegría♪
Here, one, two.
♪Alegría
Como la luz de la vida
Alegría
Come un lampo di vita
Alegría
Del delittuoso grido
De la tristeza loca
Seren
Come la rabbia di amar
Alegría
Come un assalto di gioia ♪
The fact that he’s rearranging the tunes, it’s a risky task,
but we both think that he’s doing an amazing job
and he’s really paying justice to the DNA of the show
and what Alegría means
and should be, nowadays, at least.
That’s the one, I think.
It takes about seven or eight takes before we get the best one.
I think this is the best one.
♪ A joyous, magical feeling. ♪
Euh…
- Let’s do one more, let’s do one more. - More, one more, one more, one more.
OK, OK.
One more time.
Today, we brought all the elements together for the first time,
with all their various colours and textures.
Boom!
Oh sh… That guy’s really good.
It’s the real deal.
Every time the costume comes back,
there’s something a little different about it.
So then you…
It’s always, it’s always evolving, yeah.