Before starting as a scout, I was lucky enough to be part of the birth of our show DELIRIUM. The creation process for this show was very complex and unique. The first month of rehearsals was dedicated to learning the music and working the arrangements; all the musicians had a big influence in the final result and I developed almost all the bass lines. When we arrived at the first rehearsal site- an empty car plant- it was impressive. I felt as if we were in a confidential NASA project! The stage was 130 feet long, and more that a 100 technicians were working on the rigs, lighting and sound set ups. In this show instrumentalists were on stage and constantly interacting with characters, dancers and acrobats.

The second rehearsal site was a plane hangar, where even more people were working and we could really feel the pressure of the opening less than two months away. We worked sometimes more than 80 hours a week to finalize all aspects of the show. The opening was at the Bell Centre in Montreal, where more than 20,000 people saw the show! In the 1^st year of the tour we visited more that 50 cities around North America. More than one million people saw the show. I am very proud to have participated in DELIRIUM. I learned so much and this led me to my job as a talent scout with Cirque du Soleil.

André

Julie 

One of the best things for me about working in Casting is that there are no typical days! One day I’ll be running around, holding an audition, presenting artists to a creation team, or checking in on a singer in training. Another day I’ll be in meetings to plan marketing campaigns, new casting tools (like Myspace!) or planning our next year of activities. Today is a good day for just being at my desk and catching up on emails, and blog entries, and evaluations, and.. and…. Well, better get back to work 

Violaine Corradi (who previously wrote the music for the Cirque du Soleil shows Varekai and Dralion) returns to compose and produce the ZAIA soundtrack based on the first Cirque resident show outside of the United States in Macau, China at the Venetian Hotel. The ZAIA soundtrack offers a musical odyssey in space and time with soul-stirring vocals and exhilarating musical interpretations. ZAIA invites the listener to live a riveting experience into a unique allegorical dream world… This soundtrack was recorded with the ZAIA stage band and the string section of the Hong Kong symphony orchestra.

“25” presents some of the very best selection of Cirque du Soleil growing musical catalogue and commemorates its 25^th Anniversary with a special edition compilation. The double-album invites the listener to experience the fruit of 25 years of adventures and emotions with 25 songs grouped in two distinct themes: Poétique shows the softer side of Cirque while Dynamique exhibits its up-tempo classics.

The compilation was put together by Alain Vinet, Cirque Music Director: “In 25 years, the music of Cirque du Soleil has matured from brass band to full-fledged orchestral soundtracks, borrowing indigenous and folkloric sounds from around the globe. Inspired by movement and beautiful imagery, the music reflects the emotion conveyed on stage. Sometimes poetic, sometimes dynamic, it takes you back to a time when reality and fantasy were one and the same. These two unique albums offer you a chance to truly experience the musical evolution of Cirque du Soleil.” 

It’s that time of year again, and if you are a singer you know the additional stress of keeping your voice healthy. For a Cirque singer performing 8-10 shows per week, staying healthy in cold and flu season is especially important! But our singers aren’t super human, and sometimes they do succumb. What then? We have lots of creative solutions in place to allow singers the time to recover. On shows like Alegria and Saltimbanco where there are two singers rotating the lead and backup roles, the solution is fairly easy. For other shows like Corteo, the mezzo can cover the baritone part in her range and vice versa. But sometimes it just isn’t possible to have live singing when the singer is out. On ZED, our soprano missed a performance due to a concussion, and her part couldn’t be covered by the baritone. In that instance, we had to use a recorded track and a stand-in. Those moments are rare though! If you are watching a Cirque show you can be 99.9% sure you are hearing a live singer.

have fun