Daniel Lavoie

Daniel Lavoie – a composer, singer, pianist, actor, poet, radio host, a man whose life is all about music. Besides his solo career, he is known for being a member of the original cast of the mega-musical Notre Dame de Paris, which premiered back in 1998, where Daniel played the leading role of the priest – Frollo. The new and revived production of the cult musical Notre Dame de Paris returns to New York City in July 2023. Daniel Lavoie’s Frollo once again attempts to resolve the eternal issue: the struggle between his mind, body, and soul.

You were the only one from the original cast returning to this production in New York. How do you feel about the new production? When I saw the show, I noticed some changes...
DL: Well, the changes are not very big, except for maybe one choreography which I have nothing to do with, it’s not in any of my scenes. It’s all just a bit of tightening corners and making things a little better, at least according to the composers and the director, who felt like there were some places where they could make adjustments and make things better.

How do you see Notre Dame’s future?
DL: I’m amazed that Notre Dame is still a show that is pertinent, that it makes sense to people today. As for the future, I wish I could tell you how the future is going to be. If they maintain this level of quality of the show, I think it can go on for a long time. It is going back to China next year for a couple of months. I don’t know if I’ll be doing all the shows. I know we’re going to Paris, France, for another three months this year. So, there is still apparently a good future for Notre Dame.

To me – you are a musical romantic; I respect you so much as a composer. You’ve been in the musical world for many years, you’ve written music, and hosted a radio show about music too?
DL: Yes, I did. For three years I did a radio show on Société Radio Canada – Poetry and Music.

You’ve seen how the music trends have been changing throughout the years. Can you explain the recent changes that are happening in the perception of music in our culture – the rhythm becomes more important than the meaning that is put into songs and so on… All the things that are popular these days? How do you feel about it?
DL: Music has become a consumer product – something that people use like they use chocolate bars and beer; it’s become like fast food… It has lost its glory. Because it’s not worth anything anymore. It’s cheap. You can get music for nothing now. You don’t have to pay for it. And when you don’t have to pay for something – it has no value. Music has lost its value because of all this. I suspect that Spotify added to it, it played a part in making the people who used to make a living by creating music – poor. It’s made the music just an aesthetic thing. It’s just something that you use to get a feeling, it’s not what I used to consider music. Which was a heavenly gift.

That’s a beautiful answer and I couldn’t agree more. You have worn so many hats – you are a composer, an actor, a singer, a pianist, a poet, a producer. You’ve done so many things! What do you like to do the most?
DL: If you asked me what was my least favorite, I would have trouble telling you too. I think every one of them as I do them is my favorite. That’s why I’ve always been going from one to another. I try not to get bored with things. When something comes along that is different – I jump into it because this way I can discover new things and get into a completely new world. And this way it remains interesting. So, everything that I did was pretty well my favorite.

Always hard to choose, right?
DL: It’s true. I love singing, I love acting, I love producing, when I produced songs for other people it was great fun – to be of service to someone, to make the best of someone. One of the things that we love to do in life – is giving. I am a very lucky person; I never worked a day in my life – I played all my life.

Have you ever wanted to write a musical yourself?
DL: I have written a musical. I’m working on trying to get it produced. I try not to talk too much about anything until it’s out there. A friend wrote a lovely libretto. We have a bunch of great songs. I hope you will hear about it someday soon.