Why did I go to Montreal? Because of the UK. Nothing to do with the United Kingdom. The UK is the “Universala Kongreso” (Universal Congress of Esperanto) and it's pronounced [uko]. Every summer since 1905, the UK has taken place in any city of the world. This year it was in Montreal. Actually it was supposed to take place there in 2020. But guess what! It was cancelled for some reason… No, it wasn't cancelled acutally. It was replaced by an online UK. In 2021 it happened on line too. And finally it took place in Montreal in 2022.
In 2019, or maybe already in 2018, when I got to know the UK would take place in Montreal, I immediately had a great idea.
You see in any Esperanto meeting, the organizers like to add any local stuff in the cultural programme. Well there is one thing I know very well that is an important part of the culture in Quebec. It's the rock-opera Starmania. It was created by the end of the 70's. The music is by a french guy (Michel Berger) and the lyrics are by a guy from Quebec (Luc Plamondon). Half of the singers who performed the songs are french, the other half are from Quebec. And it has always been so since the very first album and the very first creation of the show. And this is one of the things I love in Starmania. It's a cultural, a musical bridge between Quebec and France. I'm french by the way. Although we share the same language, there are not so many connections I know between Quebec and France and I find it sad.
Esperanto-speakers like cultural bridges. Esperanto is nothing but the biggest cultural bridge in the world. So what I decided was to adapt Starmania to Esperanto. And what I actually did was to adapt, play and sing 15 songs from Starmania in Esperanto. As soon as this idea came to my mind, I contacted the organizers of the UK in Montreal. They enthusiastically accepted my proposal to perform Starmania in Esperanto during the congress. And as a reward they would pay for my trip, my hosting and my participation in the congress. I worked on it for more than three years.
That's how I left my home to Montreal, on 2nd August 2022, precisely 30 years after the death of Michel Berger.
An excellent journal entry! Congratulations on Starmania in Esperanto. I am excited to find out how it went. Will that be in the next entry?
I think the next entry will be the same article but in Spanish and then in italian! :) And then, I'll go for the continuation of my adventures in North America in English. :)
Thank you very much for your comments. They helped me a lot.