An
interview article by Rosemary Phillips, February 2007
Life for Natalie Choquette, La Diva and opera comedienne, was going through changes, big changes. The constant - her family, her children. This article was written for yet another appearance with the Vancouver Island Symphony in Nanaimo, British Columbia, a community that just loves all that she is and does.
A Family Affair
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| Natalie Choquette |
Take a handful of motherhood, a dash of grand-motherhood, a spoonful of business-partner and entrepreneur, ounces of musical theatre and artistic creativity, a few tablespoons of excellent opera soprano voice and great classical music, and several cups full of outrageous comedy, mix together with hilarious costumes and scripts and you have Canada’s amazing and well loved globetrotting opera comedienne Natalie Choquette.
“My house is a mess but I’m having fun,” said Natalie while taking a break from working on a new program. The house was quiet; her two daughters, Eleanor, who is now age nine and has already sung on four of Natalie’s albums, and Ariane, age six, were at school. In a previous interview, before her first highly successful performance with the Vancouver Island Symphony in 2003, both daughters had been running around the house calling for their mother’s attention.
“Now I have a bit more time to work at home,” added La Diva.”
You might call it a real juggling act – as Natalie balances home life with her touring. She has in the past taken her family with her, changing diapers in dressing rooms in Europe, and inviting daughters on to the stage during a performance. “My role as a mother is changing quite a bit. In fact, I’m a grandmother now. My oldest daughter Florence K. has had a baby - another little diva in the family, Alice Rose. It feels wonderful to be a grandmother. Florence has become a performer herself, and a songwriter, and her latest album has been named the best jazz album in Quebec.”
La Diva is truly a family affair. Amid the disarray of the house, Natalie practices her Strauss and Mahler for a show about the wives of composers who complain about their husbands, and prepares for a trip to Peru before venturing to visit with the Vancouver Island Symphony for another new program, Love La Diva. Her business partner, Eric Lagacé, who lives just minutes away, helps out with the composing; her parents live upstairs and her father, retired diplomat Guy Choquette, sends out all the latest news about his daughter’s accomplishments, via e-mail. Yes, it’s truly a family affair.
“I’m taking my daughters with me to Peru,” Natalie adds. “They will learn a lot. They will get to visit the orphanage where I have a musical project. It will show them the value of life - loving, sharing and helping others.”
Regarding her support of the orphanage Natalie says, “There are so many people around the world who need help. I can’t help everybody, but I can do my part – even if it’s a small thing. They have told me that just knowing that someone, somewhere is thinking about them gives them the strength to keep on going.”
It would not be a stretch to say that Natalie’s outlook on life and philosophical approach to all things has helped make her the huge success she is, for is not humour a wonderful way of looking at the depth of our lives and then laughing at ourselves? “It’s so important to laugh,” adds Natalie who was born in Tokyo during a typhoon and can converse, sing and joke in at least six different languages. “Even people who are grieving, they have come to me and said that for the first time they were able to laugh.”
It is through her humour that Natalie has been able to take classical music and reach new listeners. She has performed with orchestras on four continents and with a circus in Germany. “It’s circus meets classic – mixing circus acts and classical music. Being half clown and half diva that suits me fine.” And in France she performed a show with her daughter Florence. “It’s called The Problem with my Mother. We will be doing it for the Québec Festival.”
This last year Natalie also hosted a television series for Bravo called Opera Easy. “I sang in some of them, but we had many other guest singers. It was really fun!”
As we know, underlying all humour is the seriousness of life, and Natalie has touched on that recently with her contribution as spokesperson for the Québec Cancer Society. “My last three albums, the Aeterna Trilogy, were sacred music with a choir, to raise funds for the foundation. Two of the albums have won Phoenix Awards.” And Natalie’s next album will be of South American music. “It will be called Chiquita Choquette.”
The year 2006 was a hard year for many people, including Natalie and her family. “Happiness is knowing how to adapt to change. You have to be ready for anything that comes along, and ask, ‘What can I make of this?’”
Meanwhile, Natalie, who when looking to the future would like to retire to Vancouver Island, rides over it all with laughter and love. And in her show, Love La Diva, she does just that with great music by composers such as Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, Mozart and Offenbach, to offer up a delicious and hilarious Valentine treat for the heart, every heart – with love.
Follow this link to an additional
article about Natalie Choquette.
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