Cirque du Soleil’s “Corteo” is coming back to San Diego this September — but this time with some twists.
“Corteo” — protagonized by a clown who imagines his own funeral — set up shop in Del Mar in a big top tent for about five weeks in 2008. This time, it will still pair the funereal and the somber up with spunk and levity, but will last only seven shows in five days at the larger Pechanga Arena.
Performing in a tent for weeks at a time, Cirque du Soleil artistic director Alison Crawford said, is not always the best way to reach a large audience.
“Corteo” is also not the first musical Cirque du Soleil show to appear in an arena. In fact, it was the 2006 premiere of “Delirium” in Montreal, and there have been many similar shows performed in San Diego arenas since, including “Michael Jackson The Immortal,” “Varekai,” “Crystal,” and the most recent, “Ovo” in 2020.
But with less than one week of showtime per city, performers and staff in this tour are tasked with swiftly moving in and out of the arenas, Crawford said. The infrastructure from its big top tent shows was changed to allow for 10-hour constructions and three-hour deconstructions as “Corteo” traveled from city to city.
Compared to traveling with a big top tent, transferring from arena to arena can be much easier.
“When you’re a tent, you’re a village,” Crawford said.
Arenas — just like big top tents — house an auditorium, concession stands, special sections and more, but circus tents have the added burden of shuffling them throughout the country. “Corteo” may not be traveling with a village of tents, but it is surely traveling with a village. The The crew, Crawford said, numbers 120 people: 53 performers and 34 technicians, along with tour managers, catering staff, an artistic team and more.
In each city, Crawford added, Cirque du Soleil contracts about 100 locals to assist with the show’s successive moves, along with dressers and sewers to help manage the show’s 80-plus costumes.
Despite the Herculean tasks of transporting hundreds of people, props and costumes, the result is a show that Crawford says is “very human.”
“What you’re seeing is something that will really touch you and move you,” she said.
The show opens with a procession featuring the whole cast — which includes angels, clowns and other acrobats.
“You’re introduced to everyone right at the beginning,” Crawford said. “And don’t miss the beginning. Don’t arrive late.”
As the show continues, the production spins into many unexpected — yet awe-inspiring — directions. In the act entitled “Chandeliers,” four women acrobats, the protagonist clown Mauro’s former loves, perform on three large chandeliers dangling above his head. In “Bouncing Beds,” performers, playing children, jump on two 600-pound trampolines outfitted as beds in their grandparents’ room.
“It’s so much joy,” said Betsy Allison of “Bouncing Beds,” an act in which she performs. “And then you’ll go into a part of the show where it’ll be a little bit more serious, and you’ll just be in awe. So you go through this spectrum of emotions that is just really beautiful.”
“Corteo” at the Pechanga Arena
When: Sept. 6 through 10
Where: Pechanga Arena, San Diego
Tickets: $39 to $160
Online: cirquedusoleil.com/corteo
