Last night, I had the pleasure of seeing Cirque du Soleil's latest production to hit Denver. Corteo was a blast! Let me preface to say that I've seen almost every Cirque show post-Quidam. And Corteo was easily the best since Quidam.
The show was positive and exuberant despite it's morbid clown funeral storyline. But as Cirque shows usually go, the storyline doesn't really matter anyway. But the acrobatics on the other hand...
The acrobatics in this show were some of the best and most innovative I've seen yet. Opening with an amazing aerial act on three huge chandeliers, the show whizzed from one amazing act to the next, including an act that can aptly be described as a "human trapeze". The way some of these people can flex and bend is incredible.
One of my favorite parts of Cirque shows is the music. A few of the more recent cirque shows have departed somewhat from the traditional "cirque" sound. Varekai's soundtrack CD wasn't really a soundtrack to anything. Zumanity is bizarre. Ka is too cinematic. But Corteo was Cirque du Soleil! I can't wait to buy the CD.
The drummer was just amazing. His energy and precision was incredible. All of the musicians are supremely talented, just like every other member of the troupe. A super-talented violinist competed in a friendly musical duel with the amazing whistling ringmaster. There also was a classical guitarist who was just incredibly fast and precise.
As a longtime techie, I've always loved Cirque's technical aspects. This one was excellent with incredibly awesome lighting that was exciting, but not overwhelming. They had some wonderful lighting cues and great effects. The automation was incredible. A cool overhead trolley-winch system offered plenty of opportunity to fly performers and set pieces in, or to slowly float across a bunch of angels or a clown on a bicycle.
They also had a couple of neat radio controlled things. By things I mean "walking shoes" and "robot light head car-thingys". It was innovative use of RC for sure...I was glad to see Cirque including interesting objects like that.
The only disappointing act was a high-wire walk that got progressively more absurd. A very-taught safety cable attached to the performer allowed her to effortlessly pull off all sorts of tricks including walking up a 45-degree sloped wire and hula-hooping. At first it seemed cool, but when you realized that the safety cable was holding all her weight, it really felt like a gimmick.
I gotta say, my one complaint was the hospitality aspects. They didn't have nearly enough bathrooms (which were all unisex, so now us guys get to wait in line like girls too) or concession stands. I'd think that they'd lose a lot of business from people not wanting to wait in a long line. Plus, my 60 year old mom requested a booster seat cause she is tiny, and the usher wouldn't give her one because she said they were only for kids. That's funny, seeing as we paid TWICE as much as what a kid would have, the almost-senior would have the higher priority.
Here is a video clip I found on YouTube from the show. It's a little tiny girl in a harness suspended by helium-filled weather balloons. And that's just the beginning of it.
Anyway, that's it. Don't miss Corteo!
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