When "Cirque du Soleil: Dralion" swoops into Chaifetz Arena, it will boast some spectacular performances — in the air and in the orchestra pit. We chatted with Anthony Cooperwood, who's been a musician with Cirque du Soleil since 2001, about life with the circus.
• You're from Kansas City, but where do you call home when you're not on the road? When I'm not working, I'm living in Montreal.
• You've toured around the world. What are some highlights from your travels? I'd say that some of my favorite places to play have actually been with the circus. We've been performing all over the world, and Spain has been one of my favorite places — Barcelona, especially, and Malaga and Valencia were quite special. We were in those places for a total of about a year. Touring through western Europe was nice. ... When we're not performing, we have the opportunity to stay in these areas for about a month at a time, so we had an opportunity to really visit and get to know the cities and the countries. Getting a better knowledge of Europe was great.
• How long have you been with Cirque du Soleil? I've been with Cirque off and on since about 2001, so almost seven years.
• What are some of the challenges of performing for live theater versus just performing music? It's the fluidity of the show. ... When we have a live show, we have a band, so the actual editing takes place on the spot. We do a lot of the shows kinda flying by the seat of our pants. We've got a great band, and we've got some talented musicians, and we kind of evolve with the show as it's going. We can't say that any particular show is exactly like another because it constantly changes. Of course, there's blocking and rehearsals, and people usually hit their marks on time and things like that, but you never know when an artist is gonna fall or miss a jump or something. So we sometimes might have to solo a little bit longer, we might have to cut an area shorter, we might have to jump over an entire section. By doing this — by maintaining the fluidity of the music with the show — the audience will never know that anything is amiss.
• You've conducted the orchestra, so what's that like, getting to make some of those calls? I've done that in the past ... but I'm not the backup conductor on this show. If the main conductor gets sick, then I would actually take his place and call the show - and I would play my parts. I'm the keyboard player and the bass player for the show, then there's also the conductor. He plays keyboards also, but he mainly triggers the various sequences, and he acts as the liason between the band and the stage management. The stage manager, in the front of the house, actually calls the show. He'll get information from the conductor, who will relay that information to us. In a case where I would actually have to call the show, I would have to do my parts — the keyboard 2 parts — as well as the keyboard 1 parts, as well as trigger the sequences, and be the liason between stage management and the show as the action unfolds onstage.
• Is the orchestra in a pit or backstage? Can you see the show as it unfolds? Absolutely — we're in a pit, and we're watching the show as it's running. Because the music is such an integral part of the show, we're the glue that holds the entire show together, so it's important that we see everything that happens onstage. We're integrated into the stage in a pit area. If you know where to look for us, you will see us; if you don't know, you really won't notice us. It's really subtle. ... For things that we can't see that well, we also have video monitors that come from a camera located in the front of the house.
• I haven't yet said the name of the show because I'm not sure how to pronounce it. Help me. I pronounce it
Drah-lee-on. It's a combination of the word "dragon" and "lion," and that's the concept of the show. East meets West.
• Tell me about some of the sounds we'll hear in "Dralion." The score for the show is extremely diverse — there are didgeridoos (Australian wind instruments), there are French horns, there are strings, there are whistles and flutes from the Far East. I do a lot of the weather effects — thunder to go along with the lighting that comes from the lighting department. ... The percussionists have percussion instruments literally from all around the world. Our percussionist is from Australia, and our drummer is from Brazil. He brings some of his Brazilian influences into the drumkit for the show. We have a violinist, an electric guitar, an acoustic guitar. I play upright electric bass, as well as five-string bass and fretless bass, as well as keyboards and piano. There's country-type music, there's Irish-type music — it's really a mix of so much different world music.
• Do you have a favorite act in the show? I do. In the second half of the show, there's a ballet between two people. ... It's an aerial dance between two artists, a male and a female. It's a very romantic moment in the show — a very uplifting and very etherial kind of thing.
• Have you ever been tempted to hop onstage and try any stunts? No! Not at all! So many of us have so many different talents, and we kind of stick to what we do. But that's onstage. Behind the stage, we can have all sorts of fun! Backstage, when we're in rehearsals or after the show or before the show, we have lots of fun on the various apparatus — learning to do backflips and juggle. The juggler teaches a lot of people to juggle, and it's really neat. A lot of the people behind the scenes are sharing their art with other people. ... We have a trampoline back there, so some people are learning to do some exercises on that. It's really kind of cool — this big sharing of knowledge. And then a lot of the acrobatic artists want to learn musical instruments, so some people will bring a guitar, and our guitar player will give guitar lessons. And there's also languages — we're teaching each other languages. Some of the people who speak English are teaching some of the Chinese to speak English, and some of the people who speak Chinese are teaching some of the English people how to speak Chinese.
• So, anything you've picked up that you're ready to take on the road? Actually, when I first started playing in this show, I was only a keyboard player, and I was playing the bass on the left hand — I was doing left-hand keyboard bass. But there were so many bass parts that it just made sense to learn the instrument. So I actually did learn the bass instrument on the road, and we put that into the show. Before I learned bass instruments, I learned how to play the Chapman Stick (a two-handed fretboard instrument) to cover some of the bass parts and then put that into the show. So some of the things that I learned on the fly did go into the show.
• Finally, what's in heavy rotation on your iPod right now? I was just listening to the Foo Fighters earlier today as I was working out at the gym. And I've got some songs by Sting that I really like. I'm listening to some jazz, as well — Oscar Peterson's always great.
By Gabe Hartwig • ©2011 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, STLtoday.com • Published 01.13.11
