Rupert Degas

The Wind-up bird Chronicle is widely held to be Haruki Murakami’s masterpiece, but this does not phase the actor and studio owner Rupert Degas. Having already completed the unabridged recording of A Wild Sheep Chase, he knew Murakami is such a delightful story-teller that reading his works – even in English translation – is simply great fun.

Even the prospect of reading a work which would extend to twenty-six hours on twenty-one CDs did not unnerve him.

On 10 May 2006, at 10 a.m., in his own studio, Q Sound in London, he placed the first thirty pages of the voluminous script on the lectern in front of him, and settled down to read.

It wasn’t a totally new experience because, curiously, he had already read the first chapter. The opening section of The Wind-up Bird Chronicle began life as the first work in the short-story collection, The Elephant Vanishes, The Wind-up Bird and Tuesday’s Women, already released.

Murakami wrote the short story, and later expanded it into a full novel. Seven readers share the seventeen stories in the collection, and Rupert reads Tuesday’s Women so seductively there was no doubt about who should take on the mammoth task of when it came to the main novel.

The opening chapter itself is engaging – a man is making pasta at home during the day when the phone rings, and a mysterious but sensuous voice engages him in conversation. It is diverting and quizzical. Yet, as Rupert says, it gives no indication of the rich, demanding epic that follows.

‘Shortly after recording Tuesday’s Women I spent a week working in Paris with some free time and expected to spend enjoyable, relaxing hours reading The Wind-up Bird. I had no idea what was coming! I was completely surprised when I got down to it! I had agreed to record it for Naxos AudioBooks before I realised what a massive work it is...’

It is one of the toughest challenges for any reader. Rupert had to be the narrator, and a host of other characters which need to be sustained over considerable spans: the septuagenerian Lieutenant Mamiya, the young Japanese sisters Creta Kano and Malta Kano, the very different kooky teenager May Kasahara, the narrator’s wife, Kumiko, and a long cast of other rather odd people. It meant an extraordinarily virtuosic performance from the thirty-six-year-old London-born actor. And it was all done in a light ‘transatlantic’ colouring.

Rupert receiving the first copy of the recording – after a performance in the highly successful production of John Buchan’s The 39 Steps!

Rupert recorded it in carefully-structured sessions over three weeks. A very physical performer, who animates (silently!) as he reads (as can be seen from the pictures), he has to table in recuperative breaks – which he uses to hop on the tube down to Soho. Rupert is in considerable demand as a voice-over for cartoons, film dubbing and a variety of other entertainment media where his remarkable capacity for voices comes into its own. This, he assures, was down-time after the intensity of The Wind-up Bird.

With the Q-Sound editor Adam Helal producing and recording, and editing in-house, Rupert was able to oversee the whole project in a way unusual for readers.

Rupert is now becoming something of a Murakami specialist. Already available are his recordings of The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, A Wild Sheep Chase, and the opening story in The Elephant Vanishes. In January 2007, Naxos AudioBooks releases the unabridged recording of the short story collection after the quake. And later in 2007 will come Dance Dance Dance, the sequel to A Wild Sheep Chase.

Find out more about the novels of Haruki Murakami on Naxos AudioBooks.