When soprano singer Julia Teal Kermott got the call that she would be Elsa in Abu Dhabi’s Disney: Frozen in Concert, starting this weekend, she ran straight to her computer. She’d never seen the film before. In it, a determined and down-to-earth princess, Anna, goes on a search for her sister, ice queen Elsa.
“There’s always the Elsa and Anna camps, and when I watched it, I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know, I might be Anna?’ Like, I really love her character!” laughed Kermott. “But if you give Elsa a chance, especially by the end of the movie, you’re like, ‘Okay. She’s redeemed herself. She’s a really good person.’”
Kermott will be one of four soloists bringing the blockbuster animation to life at du Forum, between February 12-13 and 18-20, with the full weight of the UAE’s National Symphony Orchestra behind them. The orchestra, seated in front of a large screen that will play the movie, will provide the full score. During the vocal numbers, the UAE-based singers — playing Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Hans and Kristoff — come out to perform.
“I’ve listened to the music countless times now, but it’s never quite the same like hearing the instruments right next to you, and feeling the vibrations from a huge orchestra,” said Kermott.
“It’s aimed for kids, but it’s written in a way that adults can get a lot of the humour and a lot of the nuance. It’s a great way to introduce young audiences to the symphony, because they’re really doing this super relevant work, but with a real, legitimate, full and talented orchestra. And soloists. And a choir.”
After its 2013 release, Frozen became the highest-grossing animation of all time, and the third highest-grossing movie in general. It won a Golden Globe and two Academy Awards — one for Best Animation Film and one for Best Original Song, the Top 5 single Let It Go by Idina Menzel.
“It’s a really difficult song to sing, and it’s extremely catchy and just really well-written. It’s [got] this whole range of emotions, so I really enjoy getting to lose myself in that,” said Kermott.
For her, the toughest part is finding her own identity in the song, rather than emulating Menzel’s version. She plans to “do the music in a way that’s sticking with the original idea, reminiscent of that sound, but still using my voice and not trying to sound like Idina.”
Paul Bester, the tenor who will embody goofy snowman Olaf, is most looking forward to singing In Summer.
“It suits me really well and I really love belting the last high note. I really love the dreaminess of it — dreaming beyond what you think is possible,” said Bester, who, unlike Kermott, was “a massive Frozen fan” before taking on this project. At 29, he’s a Disney fanatic in general.
“I was absolutely obsessed with the movie Aladdin as a child. That is the reason I became a singer, is because I always wanted to be a Disney singer. In some way, this is sort of like my childhood dream come true,” he admitted.
“Olaf is very similar to my personality. I’m very bubby, and I always have a very positive outlook on the world. I really love the idea of playing the character — that kind of nonchalant, blasé way of going through life, naively loving everything and dreaming wild, beyond what’s possible. That’s what I love about Olaf, he dreams the impossible for himself.”
Kermott listed Olaf as one of the film’s strongest characters, due to his comedic and light-hearted streak, but found herself slowly becoming more endeared toward her own character.
“You could relate to Anna from the beginning more, she’s just a fairly normal person. Despite being a princess, she’s goofy. But Elsa has a lot more depth and there’s a lot of layers to her, and it’s not just about being a strong queenlike character,” she said.
Sleeping Beauty was Kermott’s go-to animation as a kid when she was home sick from school, and she was a self-professed diehard Disney fan up until Mulan came out in 1998. She believes Frozen’s power lies partially in its soundtrack.
“That single, Let It Go, seemed to be the first time that a Disney song was able to cross over into a hit pop song, too. It was something that could be exerted from the movie. You don’t need the context of what she’s going through, it’s a single on the radio that people relate to without even knowing the story,” she said.
Meanwhile, Bester believed the success of the film boiled down to the fact that it was “written with its audience in mind”.
“The characters are exceptionally well thought-out and the music fits every character like a glove. It really allows the listener to fantasise, to break away from reality and go into this other world,” he said.
*Tickets, available through ticketmaster.ae., range between Dh150-Dh500. Show timings are: 5pm on Friday (February 12), 2pm on Saturday (February 13), 7pm on Thursday (February 18), 5pm on Friday (February 19) and 2pm on Saturday (February 20).
