Cirque du Soleil is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 June 1984 by former street performers Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix.
Quidam was the ninth stage show produced by Cirque du Soleil. It premiered in April 1996 and has been watched by millions of spectators around the world. Quidam originated as a big-top show in Montreal and was converted into an arena format beginning with its 2010 tour in North America. It then changed back to the Big Top for a 3-month run in Seoul, South Korea before returning to an arena show for its tour to Oceania. The show performed for the final time in Christchurch, New Zealand on February 26, 2016.
Mystère is one of six resident Cirque du Soleil shows in Las Vegas, Nevada. Held in a custom theatre at the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino, the show was first performed on 25 December 1993, making it the company's longest running show. As with many Cirque du Soleil productions, Mystère features a mixture of circus skills, dance, elaborate sets, opera, worldbeat music, and street theatre-style comedy. Featuring a musical score composed by René Dupéré and Benoît Jutras, the show was created under the direction of Franco Dragone.
La Nouba was a Cirque du Soleil show that ran for 19 years in a custom-built, freestanding theater at Disney Springs' West Side at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. It was a contemporary circus performance featuring acrobats, gymnasts, and other skilled performers. The show's creation was directed by Franco Dragone, who also directed many of Cirque du Soleil's earlier shows. Its title derives from the French phrase faire la nouba, meaning "to party" or "to live it up".
Corteo is a Cirque du Soleil touring production that premiered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on April 21, 2005.
Kà is a show by Cirque du Soleil at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Kà describes the story as "the coming of age of a young man and a young woman through their encounters with love, conflict and the duality of Kà, the fire that can unite or separate, destroy or illuminate."
O is a water-themed stage production by Cirque du Soleil, a Canadian circus and entertainment company. The show has been in permanent residence at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, since October 1998. O, whose name is pronounced the same way as eau, the French word for "water", takes place around and above a 1.5-million-US-gallon (5,700 m3) pool of water. It features water acts such as synchronized swimming as well as aerial and ground acts. The O theatre, which is designed to resemble a 14th-century European opera house, has 1,800 seats, thus allowing the performance to be watched by 3,600 people a night since the performance usually plays twice in a given day, also designed to meet the special demands of the show.
Varekai was a Cirque du Soleil touring production that premiered in Montréal in April 2002. Its title means "wherever" in the Romani language, and the show is an "acrobatic tribute to the nomadic soul".
Love is a 2006 theatrical production by Cirque du Soleil which combines the re-produced and re-imagined music of the Beatles with an interpretive, circus-based artistic and athletic stage performance. The show plays at a specially built theatre at the Mirage in Las Vegas.
Nouvelle Expérience was Cirque du Soleil's fourth touring circus show, which premiered in 1990.
The following discography is a catalogue of the albums and singles released by the Canadian entertainment company Cirque du Soleil.
Zed was Cirque du Soleil's second resident show in Asia. It premiered on October 1, 2008 at the Cirque du Soleil Theater, Tokyo Disney Resort, in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan. Inspiration for Zed was taken from the Tarot and its Arcana; the main character Zed represents the Fool of the Tarot. The show depicted Zed's journey and his role in uniting two mythical groups, the people of the earth and sky. The production closed permanently on December 31, 2011.
Zaia was a Cirque du Soleil stage production based at The Venetian Macao on the Cotai Strip in Macau. The 90-minute show opened in August 2008, bringing together 75 high-calibre artists from around the world. Zaia was Cirque du Soleil's first resident show in Asia and was directed by Neilson Vignola and Gilles Maheu. The custom-built theater housing the performance was capable of seating 1,800 spectators at a time.
Ovo is a touring circus production by Cirque du Soleil that premiered in Montréal, Canada in 2009. Ovo's creator and director, Deborah Colker, took inspiration from the world of insects. The idea for Ovo was not to be about the acts, nor dancing, nor insects, but about movement. The movement of life permeates the entire show, with creatures flying, leaping, bounding, and crawling. Composer Berna Ceppas brought additional life to Ovo with a score inspired by the music of Brazil. Ovo means "egg" in Portuguese and represents the underlying thread of the show. Graphically, inside the logo of Ovo, is an insect. The two O's represent the eyes and the V forms the nose and antennas.
Viva Elvis is the soundtrack remix album of the Cirque du Soleil show Viva Elvis, which focuses on the life and music of American singer and musician Elvis Presley. The album, though initially produced as a soundtrack to the show, does not include all of the songs featured in the show. The CD tracks are rearranged and extended versions of songs heard in the show, and in fact the album includes two instrumental versions of the songs "Memories" and "You'll Never Walk Alone", neither of which is in the Cirque du Soleil show.
Zarkana was a Cirque du Soleil stage production written and directed by François Girard. It began as a touring show in 2011 and was converted to a resident show in Las Vegas in late 2012. It premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on June 29, 2011, and later toured to the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow and the Madrid Arena in Madrid.
Iris was a resident Cirque du Soleil show based in Los Angeles, California. It premiered on September 25, 2011, after preview performances which began on July 21, 2011. The cost for production of the show was nearly $100 million, which included the cost of renovating the Dolby Theatre in which the show was housed. Iris was written and directed by French director-choreographer Philippe Decouflé. The show explored images from the history of cinema and featured elaborate choreography, acrobatics, and a variety of contemporary circus acts. The name of the show, Iris, comes from the camera diaphragm as well as from the colored iris of the human eye.
Michael Jackson: One is the second Michael Jackson-based production in Cirque du Soleil's roster, after Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour. It was announced to the public and media on February 21, 2013. In their continuing partnership with the Jackson estate, One evokes the entertainer's artistic style in several manners. The new production began previews on May 23, 2013 and the official world premiere was June 29, 2013 at the Mandalay Bay on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. Like The Immortal World Tour, this production was also written and directed by Jamie King. "Sneak peek" videos were released on the internet revealing numbers of the production, including "2 Bad", "Stranger in Moscow", "Bad", and "Smooth Criminal". However, unlike Immortal, the show only uses prerecorded tracks, with no live orchestra. This show is also the most dance-driven Cirque du Soleil show.
Wellington Lima is a Brazilian artistic acrobat and performer who currently works as a performer in the Michael Jackson ONE show at Cirque du Soleil.
Paramour was Cirque du Soleil's first resident musical theatre show at the Lyric Theatre on Broadway, New York City. Paramour was themed to the "Golden age of Hollywood" and followed the life of "a poet who is forced to choose between love and art". It had similar elements to Cirque du Soleil's retired Los Angeles resident show in Iris written and created by Philippe Decouflé, and had a 38-person onstage cast with actress Ruby Lewis in the lead as Indigo. Paramour began preview shows on April 16, 2016, with an official premiere on May 25, 2016. It closed exactly one year after its first preview show, on 16 April 2017.
