Cirque’s Fourth Time in SF

Cirque du Soleil’s OVO is coming to San Francisco’s AT&T Park, opening Black Friday. Phil Robitaille, head of site, talks to the “View from the Bay” reporter about his crew: “There’s eight of us; there’s 17 specialized technicians that are flown from all over the world to come and help. And to that, we add 60 to 100 local people.” The team puts together the infamous blue and yellow big top in just one day; “Set up is seven days, and [about] 2 days and a half [to take it down],” Phil continues in his Irish accent. “I’ve been doing this eight years, still I love it. It’s my fourth time [in San Francisco], it’s one of my favorite cities in the USA; I’d move here, but I have a daughter back home, so I”m just glad to be here once again, it’s the fourth time.”

Ovo is about a colony of insects before seeing an invasion of an egg. “It truly is something for the whole family,” says Peter de Baaji, head of creation. “When you have teenagers, they love the acrobatics, they love the high powered acts with the guys and girls throwing each other around. We have so many costumes which brings a whole different level to it.”

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 20, 2009 - Post a comment

Cirque du Soleil’s Wine Pairing

Black Swan Wines is inviting fans to experience Ka Cirque du Soleil live at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas for free. The company is giving away three grand prize tickets that include two round trip airline tickets to Las Vegas, Nevada, three nights at the MGM Grand, two tickets to KA and $500 allowance for meals; twenty five first prize winners will receive one Ka by Cirque du Soleil Soundtrack album. The event is open to residents of Arkansas, California, Hawaii, Utah, Tennessee or Puerto Rico. All applicants must be 21 years of age and the promotion ends at midnight on Thursday, December 31, 2009.

Black Swan Wines is owned by E & J Gallo Winery. The company is headquartered in Modesto, California and is the largest, family owned winery in the world. The company markets over 60 brand imported from Argentina, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and South Africa. The company is the largest exporter of California wine and highly acclaimed internationally. Along with Black Swan, the company owns Barefoot Cellars, Bella Sera, DaVinci, Don Miguel Gascon, Gallo Family Vineyard Estate, Indigo Hills, Lingston Cellars, New Amsterdam Gin, Redwood Creek, Red Rock Winery, Starborough, Turning Leaf, Whitehaven, Wild Vines and many more.

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 19, 2009 - Post a comment

Cirque’s Kooza Rocks SoCal

This holiday season, there is no better treat that it fun for the whole family than Kooza Cirque du Soleil. The performance is now playing at the Santa Monica Pier until December 20 and will move on to Irvine for the January 8th limited engagement at the Orange County Great Park. The show remains one of the best holiday spectaculars around and for a really ultimate setting, check out the Tapis Rouge VIP Exerpience tickets at Kooza. Dine and wine clients and employees with the show’s specialty cuisine, fine spirits, and unique entertainment.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Cirque du Soleil, as well as the 25th show - though that will be quickly surpassed when the new “Viva Elvia” opens in Vegas. The Montreal based company formed in 1984 with a lowly group of street performers, including the current CEO Guy Laliberte. The company has over 4,000 employees in over 40 different countries with 1,000 performing artists.

Want to try a new adventure? Check out the new contest for Banana Shpeel - no, they aren’t tricking you - Cirque du Soleil started a contest yesterday and will continue chances to win tickets at the Chicago Theater (where this show premieres) through November 29th. The new “roller coaster” performance was written and directed by David Shiner and will begin premieres tomorrow!

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 18, 2009 - Post a comment

Wintuk Back at MSG

Cirque du Soleil’s Alegria, which means “joy” in Portuguese, is coming to Edmonton’s Rexall Place August 11th through Sunday August 22nd. The show is the third time the Montreal based troupe will perform in Edmonton in nearly five years; Guy Laliberte and Daniel Gauthier brought Delirium to Rexall in 2006 and Saltimanco in 2008.

In holiday news, Cirque du Soleil’s holiday special “Wintuk” is returning to Madison Square Garden for its third season this past weekend. The two hour show has New Age music that really gets the kindergarten aged children going. The show’s first act features typical circus themes on bikes, rollerblades and skateboards, along with jugglers, tumblers and the tight rope. The show will be parading around the Garden through January 3rd, 32nd Street and Seventh Avenue, New York.

Children at the show will surely enjoy everything, though beware that some of the characters on the 100 foot long stage are a bit scary. Several large ice monsters stroll around the age, but the puppets acting as street lamps are really what get you. Yet it is all apart of the treat that is Cirque du Soleil, an innovative modern circus that really expands its repertoire with every show.

Enjoy it tonight with your family, with Cirque du Soleil tickets from StubHub.

Permalink - Posted in General on November 17, 2009 - Post a comment

Cirque’s Documentary on the Beatles “Love”

“All Together Now” finally made its way into the “centrally isolated” town of Ithaca, New York this past week for a showing of the film that chronicles the making of Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles show “Love.” Though the DVD has been out for a month and the Las Vegas staple has been on the stage for even more months, the project might never have seen fruition in the small town if it weren’t for the Ithaca Motion Picture Project. Thanks to that and director Adrian Wills and producer Martin Bolduc, who joined the stage after the production to answer questions.  He congratulated Sir Paul McCarthy on the spectacular job he did when in the Beatles. Though the Counter Punch doesn’t really feel like there is enough focus on how the Beatles actual songbook changed the way the world listened to music, nor exactly how that story got to the point of the stage, it still filled the audience members with a sense of joy when the story “All Together Now” was told. “The film attempts to inject a sense of urgency into the proceedings with the intermittent titles that tick down inexorably towards the deadline of the opening of the show in Vegas: “300 Days until Premier”; “200 Days” etc.” Now that show is here and the video to prove it as well.

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 16, 2009 - Post a comment

Cirque’s Feat in Europe

According to a new report in the National Post, Guy Lalbierte did the space ship launching to promote Cirque and his nonprofit organization One Drop. According to the article, his voyage off into space brought more fame to the company than it did for Canada. Though he bought the seat in a Russian spacecraft for $20 million, he found that the adventure was worth a whole lot more. “We did an in depth analysis of all media coverage we got on the space mission around the world,” says current President and CEO Daniel Lamarre. “The independent audit showed we got US $100 million worth of free advertising globally - more coverage outside Canada than the Canadian government got as a whole. We got three times’ the coverage Formula One does with all of their races.”

For how international the world market is, Cirque du Soleil only recently tapped into the Eastern European one; ironically, nearly 30% of the Cirque du Soleil performers hail from the Ukrain or Russia. The reason behind the sudden change were George and Craig Cohon, a father and son team from Canada who launched McDonald’s and Coca Cola in the former Soviet Union. “For the last four years or so, people have been approaching us there…one morning I woke up and said ‘George Cohon…would be perfect.’”

The rest is history, as Cirque du Soleil conquers the entire world. Get Cirque du Soleil tickets from StubHub.

Permalink - Posted in General on November 13, 2009 - Post a comment

Elvis is Done, Cirque is After Jackson

According to ShowBiz 411.com, Cirque du Soleil is “courting” the Jackson estate to tempt the staff and family there in commissioning a Las Vegas style show that will feature Michael Jackson’s music. The late pop star recently got his companion album “This is It” to sell over 500,000 copies in two weeks, making it gold, and will keep in line with Cirque du Soleil’s recent promotional avenue that follows shows with Beatles and Elvis Presley’s music. The company is apparently working overtime to get all parties involved with Michael over the years to connect with the Canadian based troupe and work on a new show, something the Beatles did just a few years ago for the hit Mirage Hotel feature “Love.”

Currently Cirque du Soleil is spending a wad of their own reserves for the “Viva Elvis” show at the ARIA Hotel in Las Vegas that features signature Elvis moves, clothes and of course, songs. According to ShowBiz 411, the Michael Jackson staff will wait to see the kick- off of “Viva Elvis” before really talking to Cirque du Soleil. For now, all the Montreal based company can do is wait and focus on the success of their latest Vegas staple.

Wish them luck by purchasing Cirque du Soleil tickets from StubHub.

Permalink - Posted in General on November 12, 2009 - Post a comment

Behind the Scenes of Cirque and It’s Founder

Many people are intrigued by Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte - his real life story is just as interesting to many as his company’s. The former fire breather from Montreal who started a multi-billion dollar company is now being looked at from all angles thanks to Ian Halperin, a Montreal writer who has written Guy Laliberte: The Fabulous Life of the Creator of Cirque du Soleil.

The biography is unauthorized, so many of the traits that the leader of such a renowned circus company has are not willingly revealed. Known to be “relentless, resilient, and…unfazed by risk,” says the Bloomberg press, the story follows Laliberte as he starts the company and eventually brings it to the States in the late 1980’s, a risky move.

Much of the sources used come from unidentified and pseudonym names, noting that the founding fathers of Cirque du Soleil were ‘horny little boys’ who shared the goal of having sex with ‘as many women as they could until they dropped dead.’ Many of the events noted the excessive drug use. Halperin also goes into detail about his own relationship with a former Laliberte lover, and the positive encounters he himself had with the man of the hour, calling him “one of the most humble, personable and least assuming persons I’d ever met.”

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 10, 2009 - Post a comment

Viva Las Vegas and Elvis!

Cirque du Soleil is pulling out every stop in order to celebrate the new show, ‘Viva Elvis!’ The show was only just officially announced last month, though rumors and talks have been in the works for several years. One of the most important factors regaring the Elvis Presley story is the enterprise that is going behind it - Cirque du Soleil had to work in collaboration with Elvis Presley Enterprises who owns the rights to his singles, signature moves and outfit. The Montreal based company that was started 25 years ago by Guy Laliberte also announced that the show will be titled “Viva Elvis” and will premiere in December at its permanent home at Aria Resort and Casino, within the MGM Mirage’s CityCenter complex.

Vincent Paterson, choreographer, will be directing the show as his first with Cirque du Soleil. Paterson describes the show as “an abstract biography of Elvis Presley,” according to the company’s website. Paterson has worked in the performing arts industry for years, particularly Madonna and Michael Jackson, as well as staging a ’50s style revival of Massenet’s ‘Manon’ for the Los Angeles Opera. The performers visited Graceland for research, as well as listened to some of Presley’s’ most infamous catalog, to make the show more real.

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Permalink - Posted in General on November 9, 2009 - Post a comment

Viva Elvis! New Cirque Show Name Finally Revealed

Viva Elvis! According to a Cirque du Soleil newsletter given to all Cirque Club Members, the new Cirque du Soleil show that is a tribute to Elvis Presley has been finally given a name - Viva Elvis! The show is to be exclusively performed at the ARIA Resort and Casino and was created to recognize the world in which the king of rock and roll created. The show isn’t just in high demand because it has been in talks for months but will return Evlis to Sin City.

They announced the new name Thursday morning from Las Vegas, reported CBC News, at the 2,000 theater that is part of the MGM Mirage Complex.  This show has been in the works since 2006 when Cirque du Soleil, the Montreal based troupe that has remade the modern circus, was just opening the Beatles based show ‘Love.”

The show is created in partnership with Elvis Presley Enterprises and CKX Inc (which controls the rights to his name, image and any likeness to the icon). “Created in the image of the king of rock ‘n’ roll - powerful, sexy whimsical, truly unique and larger than life - the show highlights an American icon who transformed popular music,” Cirque said in a statement.

If you want to see the show, get Cirque du Soleil tickets from StubHub now.

Permalink - Posted in General on November 6, 2009 - Post a comment


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