Hunchback makes a comeback

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Quite different from typical Broadway and the West End musicals, Notre Dame de Paris has liberated singers from a dancing role. In this production, that job goes to professional dancers and acrobats who are not responsible for singing. And the choreography stays abstract and conceptual - but still dazzling.

"I never considered it as a musical," Cocciante stresses. "It is more like an extension of operetta, which can be the new type of classic tailored for today's audience."

He uses a prerecorded symphony orchestra augmented by electronic keyboard, guitar, bass and percussion.

"Times have changed. I believe even Puccini would add electronic elements to his classical opera works if he lived in our age," the composer says.

Matt Laurent has played the role of Quasimodo more than 600 times in both French and English since 1999.

"Quasimodo is a teenager within a monster's body," says Laurent, adding that he uses his own experience back in adolescence as a reference to build up the character.

"Playing the role is very demanding, vocally and physically. And I need to be extremely careful when climbing up and down the wall," he continues.

The Canadian pop singer has recorded three solo albums. He and his band Lucky Uke have just produced their second album Sunburn this summer, using Hawaii's traditional instrument, the ukulele.

"I like the switch - playing ukulele is like enjoying a vacation," he says.

"When it comes to Quasimodo, I can get really deep in my emotions to sing out the tragic and dramatic role that I wouldn't experience in my real life.

"Playing it for so long, the role has become a real part of me," he says.

Half Italian, Cocciante is happily working on his newly composed Italian musical Juliet and Romeo and opera Turandot, which he hopes will have a Chinese version, like the one planned for Notre Dame de Paris.

"We are launching the Chinese version of Notre Dame de Paris," says Zhang Yuzi, deputy director of Beijing Joyway Culture and Media Co Ltd, importer of the play.

"The Chinese audience will love it even more when it is sung in our own language."

zhangzixuan@chinadaily.com.cn