Cirque puts on dazzling extravaganza at Prospera

Twenty-One trucks rolled into Kelowna’s Prospera Place transforming the arena into a place of wonder for Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo, which opened Wednesday night.

While Cirque has been to Kelowna before, this is the Àrst time for Corteo has come here.

Corteo had been performed under the big top from 2005 to 2015 in 60 cities in 19 countries around the world.

In 2015, Cirque du Soleil closed the big top format and adapted the show for arenas to be able to take it places it hadn’t been able to previously.

Unlike other Cirque du Soleil productions where the audience is on three sides, the stage for Corteo is open on two sides and sits in the middle of the arena with the audience facing one another on opposite sides.

There wasn’t a bad seat in the house. Prospera Place looked like a big theatre with the curtain down when the audience arrived.

The stage was a little foggy to portray a dream-like atmosphere in between heaven and earth, complete with angels.

Corteo, which translates as procession from Italian, is Mauro the clown’s dream of his own funeral.

While that might seem like a sombre subject, Corteo is a vibrant celebration of life which includes Áashbacks of the highlights of Mauro’s life, including the loves of his life Áying over the stage on giant chandeliers performing amazing tricks

As the story moves along through different acts, the audience sees the clown’s friends who used to travel with him in different circuses around the world come to pay tribute at his funeral and show their extraordinary skills.

Corteo is a visually stunning production whose 51 performers delight the audience with their feats of strength, coordination and grace over the twohour show.

As the production is based on a dream, anything can happen and there are some charming and funny surprises.

The performers realize every child’s dream in the bouncing bed act.

These oversized beds, however, are trampolines and four acrobats bounce joyously from bed to bed, balancing precariously on the headrails and footrails.

The synchronicity of the acrobats rolling around stage suspended inside gold wheels was beautiful and the precision of multiple performers defying gravity on the horizontal bars in the Ànal farewell to Mauro kept the audience riveted.

The crowd was enchanted as a little person just three foot seven Áoated over the audience supported by four gigantic helium-Àlled balloons.

People like me who event have trouble standing on ladder will be amazed by the handstands performed atop ladders by the Corteo performers.

The music was created speciÀcally for the show, a joyous, rollicking score performed by seven live musicians playing keyboards, saxophone, violin, clarinet, accordion and bass as well as a male and female vocalist at stations on the four corners of the stage.

The 2,000 costume pieces, inspired by the end of the 19th century with suit and big dresses, are gorgeous.

Corteo plays at Prospera Place until Sunday.

Tickets are available through Select Your Tickets.