Cirque du Soleil -- Corteo (Cirque du Soleil Images, 2005)

You know, I've never seen a live performance of Cirque du Soleil. And given my place of residence and their venue requirements, I somehow doubt I ever will. But I'm sure I've seen every Cirque du Soleil video performance at least once, some more than once over the years. The company was kind enough to send a copy of Corteo to the Green Man offices a while back, and I happened to be helping out in the mailroom when the brownies took it out of the envelope.

I suppose I shouldn't assume that you know what Cirque du Soleil is. Well, translated from the French, the name is Circus of the Sun. Founded in the 1980s by Quebecois Guy Laliberte, Cirque du Soleil offers a contemporary interpretation of the old-fashioned circus, sans the rings, the animals, the sideshow and the cotton candy. So what's left? Troupes of extraordinarily talented people from all over the world performing spectacular circus arts, including aerial acrobatics, tightrope walking, juggling, and clowning. The shows are built around themes or story lines, with acts seguing one into the next on an open set, kind of a theatre in the round. They are accompanied by live music, with the musicians and singers performing as integral and visible parts of the company. At this point in time, Cirque du Soleil is a very big business, with companies touring in various parts of the world, a permanent (and risqué) show in Las Vegas, a staff of 3,500 and annual revenues exceeding 600 million in U.S. dollars.

Now what about this performance? According to the Cirque du Soleil Web site, the word Corteo means cortege or funeral procession in Italian. The story is about an older clown who imagines (or witnesses) his own funeral, attended by mourners representing different stages in his long life, as well as by angels waiting to escort him to the higher planes. The mood is appropriately mournful and nostalgic without being either dismal or maudlin, a balance not always easy to achieve. The creator and director of this show is a Swiss Italian named Daniele Finzi Pasca, who has performed in circuses himself. Perhaps because of the numerous Italian influences, I found this production strongly reminiscent of an opera, with elements of the Commedia dell'arte thrown in for good measure. The music, composed by Quebecois Philippe Leduc, is so good that we bought the CD soundtrack. A recent listen without the distraction of the visuals made me think of the wonderful Italian band Calicanto (which, alas, we've never reviewed!).

Memorable scenes abound. My favorites include acrobats jumping on beds (surely you did that when you were a kid! I did!), beautiful ladies (obviously the clown's lovers) hanging alluringly from chandeliers, the funeral march that turns into a dance party, shoes that walk across the performance space by themselves, and the final scene, in which the dead clown rides skyward on a teeny bicycle suspended on a high wire over the big top.

In this video production, the dead clown is quite perfectly played by Mauro Mozzani, a burly Italian with an expressive face and a husky voice. With the noteworthy exception of Sean Lomax, an African American who plays the whistling circus ringmaster, most of the other characters, whether clowns, acrobats, singers, musicians, or dancers, are Russian. My favorites of these are Igor Issakov, who plays the enigmatic White Clown, and the exquisitely charming little people, Grigor Pahlevanyan and his wife Valentyna.

I am sure that a live Cirque du Soleil performance has its own pleasures, but the video also offers clear advantages, such as being able to watch the show multiple times, to stop the action or to replay a favorite scene. All the Cirque du Soleil videos I've seen are very well-executed, making full use of multiple cameras to give the viewer angles and close-ups that would not be available to anyone sitting in a live audience. The Corteo DVD offers some of the best extras I've ever seen in such a package, including interviews with members of the company (both performers and behind-the-scenes folks) and a very nice "day-in-the-life" piece that follows two of the performers through a typical day in the big tent. We're loaning our copy to a friend, but will surely watch it again when she returns it.

[Donna Bird]