Cirque Du Soleil's 'Corteo' comes to Broomfield and Loveland

Colorado has become no stranger to the unique pageantry and acrobatic spectacle of the seemingly inexhaustible sensation that is the Cirque Du Soleil franchise.

But Maxwell Batista, the publicist touring with Cirque's "Corteo," says that show will bring not just yet another spin on Cirque's much-lauded take on circus arts but a whole different way for audiences to experience the colorful thrills for which the brand has become so well-known. "Corteo" begins a run of shows in Broomfield and then Loveland starting May 24.

The show does not take place on a circular stage set on a wall, as most of Cirque Du Soleil's shows do, but rather on one that has been placed in the middle of an arena with audiences sitting on all sides of it. The result, Batista said, is a far more immersive and multidimensional experience for the show's audience.

"In 'Corteo' you don't have any of those walls, so you have people all over the place and in the audience, and they are not just performing for the left or to the right side and back and forth but they are performing on all sides and in all directions," he said.

That set-up provides a fitting showcase for a show that Batista said "is one of the biggest touring shows we have," with a cast consisting of 51 acrobats, singers and actors from around the world. Together, that cast will perform an otherworldly celebration of a clown named Mauro, who is actually imagining old friends from his life of the circus coming to play tribute to him during a sort of funeral.

A clown pondering mortality and picturing his own funeral may seem a dark and weighty concept for a circus show, but Batista said the atmosphere of the show is decidedly festive and celebratory.

"For some, death is a sad thing, but in some cultures and places when someone dies they want to remember how good they were in life," Batista said. "Pretty much what you see in the show, you see the flashbacks of all the greatest moments that happened in this clown's life since he was a child."

In classic circus performer fashion, that celebration quickly turns into a fantastical showcase of circus skill with the performers staging acts involving hanging from suspended poles and straps and balancing high atop ladders.

However, Batista said many of the show's most arresting feats are those that involve the use of everyday objects, such as mattresses and chandeliers to defy gravity. That chandelier act in particular, in which Mauro's four former lovers perform aerial acrobatics on three hanging chandeliers spinning about Mauro's bed, makes for one of the show's greatest moments, Batista said.

"You see those big chandeliers above the stage and at first you think they are just props, because they are just hanging there, but then the act starts and those aerialists start flying over the stage and it is something where you are like 'Woah, this is definitely impressive to see,'" he said.

The show also finds much of its spectacle in contradictions, such as those between small performers and larger-than-life props and that between "ridiculous and the tragic." The overall result, Batista said, is a show that is by equal parts jaw-dropping and moving, Batista said.

"This is definitely a new version of Cirque Du Soleil," he said. "It's something that is different from anything seen before and that's definitely worth it for people to come to see."

Paul Albani-Burgio: 970-699-5407, palbani-burgio@reporter-herald.com