[On Stage] "I Couldn't Forget Korean Audience, Came Back After 19 Years"

Composer F?lix Gray of the Musical 'Don Juan' Visits Korea
Original French Team's Tour Returns After 19 Years
Opens at Seoul Arts Center Opera Theater on the 4th... Runs Until the 13th

Moli?re, Alexandre Dumas, Mozart, Beethoven, Richard Strauss, Delacroix.

F?lix Gray, the composer of the French-Canadian co-produced musical 'Don Juan,' enumerated the names of numerous artists who were fascinated by Don Juan, the epitome of a womanizer, during a roundtable interview held on the 1st at a hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. He said, "When I decided to do a musical, the most powerful figure that first came to mind was Don Juan." Gray visited Korea ahead of the original French team's tour of 'Don Juan,' which is happening for the first time in 19 years.

Don Juan is a work where Gray took charge of the script and composition, and Canadian director Gilles Maheu, who directed the musical 'Notre-Dame de Paris,' collaborated. It premiered in 2004 in Quebec, Canada, and in Korea, the original team’s tour marked its premiere in 2006. The original team’s tour, realized after 19 years, will open on the 4th at the Opera Theater of the Seoul Arts Center and run until the 13th.

Musical 'Don Juan' Composer Felix Gray
[Photo by Mast Entertainment]

Don Juan is a womanizer appearing in 17th-century Spanish legend. Mozart depicted the womanizer Don Juan through the aria "Catalogue Aria" sung by Don Juan’s servant Leporello in the opera 'Don Giovanni' (the Italian form of Don Juan). Leporello sings while holding a booklet containing the names of thousands of women his master has seduced across various European countries.

Gray said that in the musical Don Juan, the first number Don Juan sings, "Mon nomㆍMy name," reveals what kind of person Don Juan is. "Although it doesn’t list women’s names like the Catalogue Aria, the lyrics express who Don Juan is and how he perceives himself," he explained.

Gray cited the age of the actors as the biggest difference from the premiere 19 years ago. At the 2006 premiere, Jean-Fran?ois Breau, who played Don Juan, was 30 years old. This time, Gian Marco Schiaretti, who plays Don Juan, is 39. Schiaretti appeared as Phoebus in the 2021 Korean tour of 'Notre-Dame de Paris.'

Gray said, "As the actors have aged, I expect they can show deeper emotions." He also added, "Unlike the premiere, the stage is decorated using new technologies such as LED lighting, so the audience will be able to feel the emotions more richly."

Korea was the first country where Don Juan was performed overseas. Gray said, "I was surprised because I never imagined it would be performed in other countries," and that is why he cannot forget Korean audiences.

"When I heard it would be performed in Korea, I was so surprised and so happy that I was almost speechless. Also, I was surprised a second time by the enthusiastic reactions Korean audiences showed after every performance. The response from Korean audiences at that time was really great."

Gray added, "Because I am a person who prefers to keep a low profile, I never do interviews in France. But because Korea showed such enthusiastic reactions, I agreed to this interview."