He is a providential man in the political rise of Emmanuel Macron and whose words are rare. In an interview with Ouest-France, Jean-Philippe Lafont, a world-renowned baritone who was the head of state’s vocal coach during his first campaign leading him to the Élysée, spoke about his collaboration with one who was only then an outsider in the polls.
“I saw him for the first time just before his famous speech “Our project” at the Porte de Versailles, where he let himself be carried away by the crowd and broke his voice,” testifies the person who met him at the end 2016 thanks to former Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot, a mutual friend of the two men. “He was young and still a beginner and I told him to be careful not to break his instrument, to be wary of the excitement that it can be to speak in front of a crowd that is shouting your name,” he recalls -he.
“After he was elected, it stopped. Too bad, I would have liked to accompany him again, because he still has room for improvement,” says the man who gave him valuable advice to improve the diction of his speeches. “He’s really improved his diction. He understood that the important word had to be colorful, almost taken out of context,” says Jean-Philippe Lafont. This baritone also gave lessons to Valérie Pécresse during the previous presidential election. For a radically different result, with an inaugural meeting at the Zénith in Paris which turned into a fiasco.