By William Jones, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Cidade Maravilhosa is gearing up for what is sure to be an unforgettable experience when the world famous Cirque du Soleil opens its doors in the city again on December 26th, 2013 at the Grand Chapiteau Marina in Glória.
The name of the current show is ‘Corteo,’ meaning procession, it exhibits a 360 degree viewpoint for its audience and features over three hunders performers upon an enormous white canvas twenty meters tall and fifty meters across in front of Guanabara Bay and Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf).
In the words of Daniele Pasca, the creator of Corteo, the artists “are being observed everywhere” and “require the artist to have a heightened perception of movement that they are presenting.”
The shows contemporary circus features its main character, a clown, who is an unwitting member of the audience at his own funeral which is depicted in a Carnival-like fashion.
After already touring through other Brazilian cities of São Paulo, Brasilia, Belo Horizonte and Curitiba the current directors are promising a show that will take the audiences breath away.
“This is a very human show, really. There will be an unknown land where strange creatures survive. Our trip this time will be the time, in my memory, what better keep our childhood,” Canadian Bruce Mather, artistic director of the show explained.
“To arrive in Brazil, in the eighth year of this tour, our thought was that the Spanish speaking public would be the ones that reacted more vigorously. But here we stand here in Rio having seen that Brazilians are in first place for their reactions,” Mather accounted. “When you appreciate what you see, Brazilians do not skimp on applause, and that’s great! That makes energy fill our artists.”
Cirque du Soleil was recently in Rio on December 8th, 2011 through January 8th, 2012 also at Marina da Glória. Out of the 29 different shows of Cirque du Soleil, Varekai, for the first time, was chosen for that Brazilian tour. Since 2006, Brazil has only hosted three other Cirque du Soleil shows besides Varekai.
Tickets will cost in the around R$240 for a show that has already been witnessed by seven million people across twelve different countries. To find out more visit the Cirque du Soleil’s official website here.
Read More (in Portuguese).
* The Rio Times Daily Updates feature is offered to help keep you up-to-date with important news as it happens