Cirque du Soleil returns to Adelaide this October with its most unique production, Corteo.
Corteo first premiered in Montreal under the Big Top in April 2005, where it toured in this format until 2015 with over 4,700 performances. It then adapted its staging in 2018 to an arena format and have charmed well over 10 million spectators in 150 different cities over 22 countries ever since.
Olaf Triebel, currently the Artistic Director of Corteo, calls Montreal, Canada, his home. Born and raised in Hagen, Germany, Olaf has a rich and diverse background in the circus arts. He studied hand balancing at the prestigious National Circus School of Montreal from 2000 to 2004, which marked the beginning of his professional journey in the world of performance.
Olaf spoke to Glam Adelaide about Corteo, how he started working with Cirque du Soleil and what it is about the world of circus and circus performing that led him to pursue such a successful career in the industry.
“How much time do I have to answer that question?” Olaf laughed. “The short version is that I was always fascinated by the circus, and that started when I was a kid – around ten-years-old. That’s when I actually started doing circus as a recreational program outside of school. Then I just got addicted in the best possible way to the lights, to the smell of popcorn, to being on stage, to this world, to the beauty of the discipline. My friends would all play soccer, but instead of playing soccer, I would do acrobatics and learn how to juggle and be in the air. There’s such a variety of things that are all part of the circus, and I think that was really what fascinated me back in the day and which is still fascinating me today about the circus world.”
Olaf shared with us how his career led him to working with Cirque du Soleil.
“Over the years as an artist I had worked with Cirque on different projects, and then at one point I went away and I did a lot of other things. I stopped performing and I started directing and choreographing and becoming an artistic guide for non-circus related productions. I had a friend who was an artistic director with Cirque, and about two years ago we were just chatting about life in general, and at one point during our conversation she said that Cirque was looking for someone and she thought I’d be perfect for the position. Things moved fast from there. I had three different interviews and then a month later I was on a plane flying to Korea to start my first job with Cirque as an artistic director. It was really just all pure coincidence. I didn’t have a plan to start working for Cirque, but it all just fell into my lap.”
Cirque du Soleil is a world leader in live entertainment. Building on four decades of pushing the boundaries of the imagination, the company brings its creative approach to a large variety of entertainment forms, such as multimedia productions, immersive experiences, and special events. Cirque du Soleil celebrates 40 years of defying reality, defining entertainment, and illuminating the world through art and creativity. Since its creation in 1984, more than 400 million people have been inspired on 6 continents and 86 countries.
We asked Olaf what it is about Cirque du Soleil that draws huge crowds wherever it performs.
“I think it’s really the need at the moment of going back to live entertainment. I feel that, because of the pandemic, we watched everything online and on the internet. I feel there’s this need right now to really go out again and watch shows live. Part of it is also of course the excitement of the circus. Things can always go wrong, which audiences seem to hang on the edge of their seat for. Audiences also love to see how far the human body can be pushed.”
In a Cirque du Soleil first, the stage for Corteo is central in the arena and divides the venue, with each half of the audience facing the other half, giving a unique perspective not only of the show, but also a performer’s eye view of the audience. An atmosphere that’s never been seen before in Cirque du Soleil arena shows.
“So the name Corteo comes from the word cortege, which is a procession, and the show is all set in the funeral of our main character, our dreamer clown Mauro. We’re leaving it open a little bit to the audience if it’s actually his funeral or if he’s just dreaming about his funeral. I should point out that we are using the funeral to mark more of a celebration of someone’s life, rather than something sad and sombre. We’re seeing flashbacks of his life when he was a kid and when he was jumping on his grandparents’ beds with his cousins. All that is of course played by fantastic acrobats and instead of having a bed, we cheated a little bit and we have trampolines hidden in the beds. We meet the four loves of his life, so we see those beautiful women performing an amazing acrobatic act on oversized chandeliers swinging on top of the stage, so it’s really all related to this clown. He was a clown in his real life, and part of the acts are from back in the days when he was performing with this circus troupe, so we’re switching back and forth between what he actually did in his life and then going back into his memories. All of that is being performed by 53 artists and 7 musicians, and like with any other Cirque show, all the music is specifically composed and all the costumes have been designed specifically for that show.”
With the show on such a busy performance schedule, we asked Olaf what the training routine is for the artists when the show is on the road.
“The training schedule, once they’re on tour, is structured, but there’s not a lot of time allocated to specific training, just because of the pace the tour moves. For example, we usually travel on a Monday from one city to the next and then on Tuesday the technicians go into the new arena and set up everything, so the artists usually have this day off. On Wednesday every act has about 30 to 40 minutes on stage where they’re validating if the lights are correct, the stage is correct and they are good to go for the evening’s performance. Wednesday evening is usually the first show in a new location. Then we have double show days right through until we pack up and move on again. We travel with our own gym and coaches who work with the artists backstage where they can. The artists are really in charge of making sure that their personal condition allows them to perform up to 10 shows a week – it’s very demanding!”
Corteo will be performed at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre this October for a very limited season of six performances only.
“This show has never been to Australia. We just celebrated its 20th anniversary in April this year and we’re just really excited to finally bring the show to Australia. I was lucky enough to have performed myself in Australia a couple of times and I always loved it. So I’m really curious to see how Australian audiences will react to this show and I just hope that they’re all coming and they’re having a good time.”
Corteo – Cirque du Soleil
Adelaide Entertainment Centre
Thursday 2nd October: 7.30pm
Friday 3rd October: 7.30pm
Saturday 4th October: 4.00pm and 8.00pm
Sunday 5th October: 12.00pm and 4.00pm
https://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows/show.aspx?sh=CIRQUE25
Photo credit: Maja Prgome
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