Cirque Du Soleil has long been a creative and dynamic entity. When blending their artistry with an icon like Elvis Presley, the pressure is on to create something spectacular. When Viva Elvis opened at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas earlier this year, it received rave reviews. The soundtrack to the show is now available.
Erich LeTourneau, who produced and arranged the music, listened to 914 albums and spent more than 3000 hours on the process of bringing Elvis' music into 2010. We chatted with Le Tourneau recently over the phone.
"The project started with Cirque Du Soliel. I was mandated by them to take the Elvis catalogue and bring it into 2010. So the approach was really to re-create the music as if Elvis was recording the song for the first time in 2010," he said. "I began to know the man. He has a unique sense of humor, he was so funny in concert. I listened to a lot of live recordings and he always had a good attitude. I think it must have been fun to be around him, I learned a lot about the man."
Otherwise, LeTourneau's only Elvis experience was hearing it around the house as he grew up. While his parents were big fans, he came into creating Viva Elvis with a fresh perspective.
"I have realized he is really eclectic, musically. He loved a lot of genres of music and was using all of it to make his sound. It was a song by song approach. I used different techniques, I would sit at the piano or do mashups or break beats. For example with Suspicious Minds I just sat at the piano and started to play, I wanted an introspective feel to fit the lyrics."
Listening to the music now, he has no concerns that he changed any of the songs
"too much." It was a unique challenge, using original recordings to
create the show's music.
"I always tried to keep Elvis' roots in the song. Elvis was always trying, he was a pioneer and changed the face of music because he tried so many things and was exploring. I was very respectful in the way I approached the songs but at the same time I had to push the envelope. A lot of these tracks are coming from the 1950's. Elvis was recording with the whole band in the same room at the same time, so every instrument was bleeding into his mic. The vocals were pretty dirty. That was complicated to try and construct a matched track with that."
Making Can't Help Falling In Love and Love Me Tender as duets was another impressive twist.
"It was the sensibility of the songs but also the technical aspect of Elvis' voice - it was the heart of the project but it was complicated to deal with sometimes. For Love Me Tender, I think it was nice to have a female voice in there and play with the melodic line. With most of the songs I tried to keep Elvis' melodic line in place and paint colours around it. With Can't Help, it was nice to use his voice in the beginning and some parts of the song, but I needed to have more force. It is a cool energy to have a female voice there with Elvis, it brings a lot of colour to it. These songs called for that."
Reaction to the show has been overwhelmingly positive. While LeTourneau hasn't heard from many long-time Elvis enthusiasts, he has had a great response from some fairly important people.
"Priscilla and Lisa-Marie Presley were at the premiere. Priscilla was really pleased with the music. We have a really good band in the show; it is really different than other Cirque shows, the band is the centerpiece. It is really rock n' roll in that way, and very different. Priscilla was pleased with the energy that the band was bringing."
"The only hardcore fans that I know from that era are my parents. I think it will depend on how open people are to music. My parents were absolutely pleased with the energy. Once my Mom listened to Bossa Nova she began to dance, which was funny. We will see what will happen. People have to stay open. Like Elvis said, music changes every 6 months and you have to change with it."