Luc Plamondon

(Author)

A native of Quebec, Luc Plamondon is one of the most respected authors in France and Canada. After attending a Jesuit seminary in Montreal, where he studied ancient Greek and Latin, he traveled to Europe at 20 to study literature and modern languages in London, Berlin, Madrid and Rome and Art History at the School of the Louvre in Paris.

Initially intending to teach and work in journalism, after seeing Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar he quickly realized that his vocation was to write rock musicals. In the ‘70s, he wrote songs for Diane Dufresne, and quickly gained notoriety in Quebec and eventually France. Upon moving to Paris, he wrote for Julien Clerc, Catherine Lara, Johnny Halliday, Riccardo Cocciante and other artists.

In 1979, the musical Starmania, written in collaboration with Michel Berger, was born and immediately became an overwhelming success in France and in Quebec, where it has sold five million records and entertained three million viewers. In 1992, Starmania was made into an album and adapted into English as Tycoon, written by Tim Rice, and sung by Tom Jones, Celine Dion and Kim Carnes, Nina Hagen, Peter Kingsbury and Cyndi Lauper. That same year, Celine Dion recorded a tribute album, Dion chante Plamondon, which sold 1.5 million copies.

Starmania was Plamondon’s biggest success before Notre Dame de Paris, but he has also written other musicals: Plamondon: The Legend of Jimmy (1990) with Michel Berger; Sand et les Romantiques (1992) with Catherine Lara; and Lily’s Passion with Barbara.

In 1998, the singer-songwriter Riccardo Cocciante wrote his masterpiece, the opera-musical Notre Dame de Paris, which debuted in September at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. After Notre Dame de Paris, Plamondon wrote Cindy, an adaptation of Cinderella, by Charles Perreault with compositions by Romano Musumarra. Cindy was first staged in 2002 at the Palais des Congrès.

Plamondon has received the highest artistic awards in both Quebec and France.

Richard Cocciante

(Composer)

Long before Notre Dame de Paris became an international success, Richard Cocciante had established himself as an atypical, distinctive figure of pop music in Europe and South America, becoming one of the most prolific artists as a hugely successful singer-songwriter. His double identity of “Riccardo-Richard” is very apt, as his career represents a unique phenomenon in the international music industry, not only by singing in Italian, Spanish and French, but also by creating different records for each of these three languages. In many countries, some of his big successes have become classics.

With more than forty albums under his belt, on which he has collaborated with several of the biggest names in the music world, Cocciante has explored all the creative processes of composition, from songs destined to be sung by him to composing with and for other artists, while also casting and directing young actors for his Opera Popolare, covering a wide range of musical expressions.

He was born in Saigon to an Italian father and French mother and, at 11 years old, when the family left Vietnam for Rome, Cocciante discovered Italy, its culture and its great musical tradition all at once. Absorbing these varied external influences allowed him to explore very different artistic experiences. His musical education was self-taught, which implies a strong drive and a thirst for perfectionism, combined with a strong independent and cosmopolitan spirit, affirming the plurality of his cultural references and the maturity of his uncompromising, sincere and impassioned artistic character.

His meeting with Luc Plamondon produced numerous texts for himself and for other artists, such as for Céline Dion with “L’amour existe encore.” The quality of their collaboration brought them to a more long-term project: Notre Dame de Paris. A project that would be written, unbeknownst to anyone, without any other pressure than that of the two authors’ creative meetings. Notre Dame de Paris, a genuine international success, defies convention and was worth Cocciante’s gamble; a pastiche of styles, where grand European traditions of classical opera are revisited and mixed by introducing contemporary techniques and rock-pop concert equipment. A second career presented itself - that of composer of Opera Popolare, which made him decide to suspend his recording career.

From Petit Prince to Giulietta E Romeo, while Notre Dame de Paris continues its incredible conquest of the world, translated into nine languages, other new projects are underway.

Gilles Maheu

(Director)

A multidisciplinary artist: an actor, writer, director, teacher, set designer, choreographer and filmmaker, Gilles Maheu has been a leading director for 40 years, in Canada and abroad. He is also the cofounder of two theatres in Montreal, l’Espace libre and l’Usine C, and in 2015, he was named a Compagnon des Arts et des Lettres du Québec for his important contribution to Quebec’s cultural life.

With his company Carbone 14, he toured over 30 countries and received over forty prestigious awards, including best set design for his show Le Rail in 1985, best concept for his show Hamlet-machine d’Heiner Muller in 1987, and best choreography for the show in 1990, along with the prize for best production for his show Les Âmes mortes in 1996.

Maheu was also the lead actor in Jean-Claude’s cult film Un Zoo la nuit at the Cannes Film Festival in 1987. In 1985, he directed the film Peau, chair et os which won him the Prix de l’Audace at the Montreal International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) and the Prix Anick de la realization from Radio-Canada, as well as the bronze medal at the New York Film Festival.

In 1998, he directed Notre Dame de Paris at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. Since then, the show has toured in over fifteen countries across the world and has been see by more than ten million spectators. It won the prize for best production and best direction in Canada and in Italy. In 2004, Maheu directed the musical Don Juan by Félix Gray in France, Canada and Korea, winning awards for best production and best direction in Quebec.

In 2007, he was the artistic director on the creation of the musical Butterflies in Beijing and in 2008, he directed Cirque du Soleil’s Zaïa in Macao, China. He is currently working on a book about his theatrical journey, as well as on three new show projects in development for 2019.

Martino Müller

(Choreographer)

Martino Müller was born in Arau, Switzerland. Originally, he was a dancer and a skilled figure skater. Based in Amsterdam, Müller became a choreographer. His first professional commitment was as a dancer with the Karlsruhe Ballet Company in Germany. A year later, he joined the Stuttgart Ballet, led by Marcia Haydée. His interest for classical ballet changed when he started to work in contemporary dance with Jiri Kylián. He then moved to the Netherlands to join the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I). Müller ventured into choreography in 1992, when he applied to join NDT II, the junior group of the Dutch company. His first piece of choreography “Who’s Watching Who” turned out to be a striking debut and received an important award from the Dutch arts organization.

That same year, Müller was invited to work for the Festival der Künste in Bad Gleichenberg, Austria, which led him to a production called A Woman Can Take You to Another Universe – Sometimes She Just Leaves You There, which NDT I later included in their own repertoire. NDT I then asked him to create a new piece. The premiere of this creation, entitled Heidi, took place in 1994. Since then, he has choreographed for numerous prestigious dance companies, such as the Lyon Opera Ballet, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Ballet Gulbenkian in Portugal, the Stuttgart Ballet, Balletmet in Columbus, Ohio, USA, the Göteborg Ballet in Sweden, the Basel Ballet, the Bern Ballet, the Lucerne Theatre, the Israeli Ballet in Tel Aviv and the Croatian National Theatre.

Notre Dame de Paris, nominated for a prize for Canadian theatre in 2000, is Müller’s first time choreographing for a musical. In this show, which continues to tour around the world, he brings modern dance together with acrobatics for the first time. In 2007, the famous Cirque du Soleil invited Müller to choreograph a new, permanent show in Macao, China. The production of Zaia opened in a custom-built theatre in The Venetian Macao, home to the largest casino in the world.

Müller won the award for best musical choreographer at the BWW Italy Awards in 2012, for I Promessi Sposi, a modern opera. He entirely redid the production’s choreography for its tour beginning in 2011. One of his most important creations was the theatre spectacular Peter Pan, The Never Ending Story. The premiere took place at the Forest National in Brussels on December 22, 2012, then toured in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Dubai and Qatar, among other places.

In 2014, the Belgian production company Music Hall asked Müller to form a new directing team with the Belgian dramaturg Lulu Aertgeerts. Together, they transformed the arena version of Peter Pan into a new, magnificent piece of theatre, the premiere of which took place in December 2014 in Singapore. The most innovative choreography that Müller has worked on was for the new musical production of Cendrillon. The premiere took place on December 10, 2015 at the Sentosa Resort in Singapore.

Christian Rätz

(Set Design)

Christian Rätz studied in Lyon at the École des Beaux-Arts and Strasbourg at ESAD. He has designed numerous sets for dance, opera and theatre in France and abroad.

He designed the sets for a number of operas put on by M. Leiser and P. Caurier, such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dialogue des Carmélites and L’enfant et les Sortilèges for the Opéra de Lyon, Dido and Aeneas, L’histoire du Soldat and Werther for the Opera of Lausanne, The Coronation of Poppea, Eugene Onegin and The Magic Flute at the TML in Mézières, Switzerland, The Dybbuk at the National Theatre of Belgium and at the MC93 in Bobigny, Salome and Rusalka at the Spoleto Festival USA, Iphigenia in Tauris in Frankfurt and at the Welsh National Opera, La Belle Hélène at the Scottish Opera, Séraglio et Jenufa at the Opera of Tel Aviv, Iphigenia in Tauris, Orphée et Eurydice and Alceste at the Strasbourg Opera House.

Over the last few years Rätz has designed sets for the following theatre productions: Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, In the Solitude of Cotton Fields by Bernard-Marie Koltès at the Evora Drama Centre in Portugal, Le Misanthrope, suite et fin by Molière and Courteline at the Théatre de Carouge, Trolius and Cressida at the Almada Theatre in Portugal.

Between 2012 and 2014, he directed Opus Null with texts by Jean Arp, Incidents ou début d’un très beau jour d’été by Daniil Harms and L’heure d’alsacien / Àll die Sproche with texts by André Weckmann. In 2015, he wrote and directed the musical Le vent du diable which was set during the millennium of the Strasbourg cathedral.

Rätz has been in charge of classes at the L’École de Théatre National de Strasbourg since 1978 and he was responsible for training student scenographers at l’ESAD from 2008 to 2011.

Caroline Van Assche

(Costume Design)

As a visual artist, Caroline Van Assche’s vision is holistic. Her progressive costumes allow the audience to witness the depth of the characters and enables the actors to adopt the characters through multiple methods beyond acting.

After two years of studying image arts and five years of textile design in Belgium, Van Assche began her career in costume in 2002 with Céline Dion’s show A New Day in Las Vegas, followed by an aquatic show at Wynn Las Vegas with Franco Dragone. Van Assche then became Franco Dragone’s artistic director and worked on several touring shows. She directed the exhibitions “Quai des Orfèvres” and “Le Tailleur du Rêve” for him in Belgium. She carried out semiological studies for Guerlain, collaborated with C. Lacroix, Théâtre de l’Éveil, CTP Events, Masters of Linen and Modo Bruxelae. She created the visual identity, set, costume and video content of the musical Pinocchio at the Théâtre de Paris and at the Comedia in 2013 and 2014.

Alain Lortie

(Lighting Design)

For the past 40 years, Alain Lortie has been driven by passion for his trade as a visual designer. He has worked with some of the biggest local and international artists.

Collaborating early on with Canadian multidisciplinary artists the likes of Michel Lemieux, Marie Chouinard and Édouard Lock, Lortie goes on to work with Quebec and European singers such as Diane Dufresne, Robert Charlebois, Daniel Bélanger, Peter Gabriel, Francis Cabrel and Eros Ramazzotti.

He is a nine-time Félix winner at Gala de l’ADISQ, and an eight-time winner of “Lighting Designer of the Year.” He is the recipient of the 1996 Masque award for best lighting for his work on Les âmes mortes (The Dead Souls), the 1998 Dora Mavor Moore Award in Toronto for his work in 1997’s Oedipus Rex and was the artistic director of the “Festival Montréal en Lumière” (2001-2005).

Some of his most memorable creations include Starmania (1993), Notre Dame de Paris (1998), Arturo Brachetti (1999), Cavalia (2003) and Odysseo (2011). Lortie is part of the Cirque du Soleil’s creative team; some of his collaborations include Soleil de Minuit (2004), Delirium (2006) and Zarkana (2011), as well as Toruk - The First Flight (2015).

In 2005, he began developing his contacts on Asia’s cultural scene, working first in China as lighting director for the Shanghai Circus World’s Era (2005) and lending his expertise to musicals such as Butterflies (2007), Love You Teresa (2010 and 2014), Mama Love Me Again (2013) and Ah Kuliang! (2013). In LiJiang he designed The Sound of Yunnan (2016) with the famous dancer Yang Lipin. In Taipei, he worked on Love Carmen (2006) and Tanya Chua’s (2013) Serendipity Tour.

Since 2014, Lortie has been collaborating with Franco Dragone on several productions, including The Han Show (2014) in Wuhan, China; La Perle (2017) in Dubai; and on Russian singer Philipp Kirkorov’s shows (2016). In 2016 at Radio City Musical Hall in New York, he was the lighting designer for the Rockettes’ New York Spectacular. In 2019, Lortie worked at the Opéra de Montréal, collaborating with Charles Binamé on his version of Bizet’s Carmen. He also worked on the unique concert of Roy Wang in Nanjing, China, and is the mastermind behind the lighting for choreographer/dancer Louise Lecavalier’s Mille Batailles (2016), So Blue (2011) and Stations (2020).

Sébastien Quinet

(Hair Design)

Sébastien Quinet studied in Lille at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and is a member of the French national hairdressing team. With more than ten years of high-level, international experience, Quinet has won many international titles, including French Champion 2004, European Champion in 2009 and World Champion in 2010.

In 2002, Quinet was noticed by Thierry Tixier, who asked him to design the hairstyles for the musical spectacular Le Roi Soleil. Building on this success, Quinet then designed hairstyles for some of the greatest French musicals, operas and more including Rabbi Jacob, Mozart, Opera Rock, Les Dix Commandements, Mistinguett, Reine des années folles and Dirty Dancing. In 2016, Quinet took his place in French cinema when Catherine Leblanc gave him asked him to design hairstyles for Un peoples et son roi, Au Revoir La-haut, The French Dispatch, Totems, and Marie-Antoinette.

Serge Perathoner & Jannick Top

(Arrangements & Musical Direction)

Jannick Top is the bassist and co-founder of the group MAGMA, and since 1978 became a musician-collaborator with Michel Berger, then the conductor with Johnny Hallyday. Serge Perathoner’s career began with Yves Simon, with whom he composed the music of Diabolo Menthe in 1977. Afterwards, Perathoner formed the group Blue Rose with David Rose.

Top and Perathoner crossed paths in the studio but properly met in 1984 on stage with Zénith with France Gall and decided to work together. They are among the best musicians in the studio and French scene, but they are particularly excited to employ their talents as musical directors.

They have created albums for such artists as Johnny Hallyday, Céline Dion, France Gall, Sylvie Vartan and Jacques Dutronc. As close collaborators of Michel Berger, they arranged and did the musical direction of the rock opera Starmania (versions 1988 and 1993) at La Légende de Jimmy (1991). In 1997, author Luc Plamondon and composer Richard Cocciante entrusted them with the musical spectacle Notre Dame de Paris.

Nicolas Talar & Charles Talar

(Producer, Enzo Productions)

Nicolas and Charles Talar are the original producers of Notre Dame de Paris. Charles Talar was one of the major independent music producers from the 1970s to the 1990s, working with Francis Cabrel, Serge Lama and Mike Brant to name only a few, selling several dozens of millions of albums. In 1996, he dedicated himself to developing Notre Dame de Paris, creating the most successful French production ever and was joined by Nicolas Talar in 2000. In 2002, they produced Cindy by Luc Plamondon, Les Enfants du Soleil by Didier Barbelivien (2003) and Don Juan by Félix Gray (2004). Since 2006 they also developed productions of children’s shows with Oui-Oui, Dora l’exploratrice and Princes et Princesses, adapted from the tales by Michel Ocelot and recently, Emilie Jolie by Philippe Chatel. Between all their productions, Charles and Nicolas Talar have presented over 7,500 performances, seen by over 18 million people. Most recently Nicolas and Charles Talar have been credited as co-producers on the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Moulin Rouge! on Broadway, West End, North American Tour and Australia, Edmond de Bergerac and What’s In A Name (UK tour) and the Broadway revival of Funny Girl.

Adam Blanshay

(Producer, Adam Blanshay Productions)

Adam Blanshay Productions is a London-based theatre production company which produces, co-produces, and manages a wide range of plays, musicals, comedies, digital content, and live event theatre across the UK, West End, Broadway, and Australia.

Producing over 60 productions worldwide, winner of 8 Tony Awards, 8 Olivier Awards, and a Helpmann Award. Current productions include Brokeback Mountain (West End); Oklahoma! (West End); Aspects of Love (West End); Funny Girl (Broadway); Moulin Rouge! (Broadway, West End, US tour, Australia); Come From Away (North America, Australia). The Theatre Channel (web series). Recent productions include: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (UK Tour & Toronto); Pippin (Charing Cross Theatre); La Cage aux Folles [The Play] (Park Theatre); What’s in a Name? (UK tour); City of Angels (West End); Waitress (West End); Lucie Jones - Live at the Adelphi, The Inheritance (Broadway); Kinky Boots (Off Broadway & UK tour); Fiddler on the Roof (Menier and West End); Network (Broadway); Edmond de Bergerac (Birmingham Repertory Theatre and UK tour); Intra Muros (Park Theatre); Notre Dame de Paris (London Coliseum); Consent (West End); Angels in America (Broadway); The Color Purple (US tour).