Excalibur Opera

Alan Simon was born in Nantes at the 3rd of July 1964 and spent his first ten years in the remoteness of the untouched moorlands of Goulaine. In this original scenery full of migratory birds and otters his father conveyed him his passion for nature. At first Alan was crazy about the cinema. Already at the   age of twelve years he presented his parents his first “motion picture”, shot on super 8.

School didn’t belong to Alans’ favourites. At the age of 15 he left school in order to discover the world. In the course of 20 years he performed diverse little crafts to finance his globetrotter existence. From 1979 to 1992 he lived in Asia, in the Indian Ocean and he made two journeys around the world which he financed by his photography, reports and music.

In 1997 Alan began to write a Celtic rock opera. After two years of recording in Brittany and Great Britain „EXCALIBUR – La Légende des Celtes“ („EXCALIBUR – The Legend of the Celtes“) was finally published at Sony Music in January 1999.

From now on Alan Simon was a popular author, composer and director. „Morning Song“, „Ad libitum“, „Dihun“, „Celtic Dream“ – all these songs stand for the versatile personality and artistical abundance of their author… Within only two weeks “EXCALIBUR” became one of the ten best sold albums in France and reached two times gold status.

Shortly afterwards the opus was presented live in front of 30,000 enthusiastic fans in Rennes, Paris/Bercy, Nantes, Quimper and the castle of Malicorne – Five memorable concerts, which united 120 well-known musicians for the first time on one stage. „Excalibur – La Légende des Celtes“ became „Excalibur – le Concert Mythique“. This concert event was recorded on the occasion of the premiere in Rennes at the 12th of October 1999. Nearly 200,000 copies of each opus were sold in France in the same year…

Alan spent the following year mainly with Roger Hodgson, the former lead singer and founder of „Supertramp“, and published together with him the new solo-album „Open the door“. Two months later the opus reached gold status. Alan was the producer of this successful album and he composed the final title „For every man“. A European tour followed.

In 2001 Alan consecrated himself to a more militant project. His conviction concerning environmental protection inspired him to an opus which counts among his best projects: „Gaia – ou la chant de la terre“ („Gaia – or the Song of the Earth“). By activating all his experience and contacts, Alan achieved this time to gain even 300 worldwide known musicians for his album. Midnight Oil (for them it was the last title), The Moody Blues (Justin Hayward), Fleetwood Mac (Mick Fleetwood, Jeremy Spencer), Supertramp (Siebenberg, Helliwell), Cesaria Evora, Zucchero, Angelo Branduardi, Andreas Vollenweider, Didier Lockwood, Jane Birkin, Billy Preston and numerous other artists took part in this adventure for the benefit of the nature.

In 2004 Alan followed the call of the producer Joe Théron to South Africa and composed there the title „I have a dream“ for the anti-apartheid-collective „Umoja“. The singing troup of young South Africans celebrated big successes throughout the whole world and gave over 500 concerts.

Also in the same year Alan began to discover the Russian continent. This encounter inspired him to go back to the roots, his original love: the cinema. He became author and director of “O Gengis”, a documentary tale. This film was shot in Kalmoukia, in Kazaksthan and Mongolia and it is a dreamlike narration which allows the viewers to walk on the tracks of the last nomads. Jean Reno and Omar Sharif were the narrators of the French and English version of this odyssey which caused for Alan and the involved actors several months of shooting under most difficult circumstances. The film was a success and sold to more than 20 countries.