Corteo tells the story of Mauro (Stephan Gentilini) the dreamer clown. Mauro envisages his funeral from the music to the vast range of circus acts that will take place to celebrate his life as a clown. It isn’t completely clear if Mauro has died or is asleep and dreaming about how his funeral will take place after he dies. Although the appearances of angels would suggest he might have died. The storyline has been created by Daniele Finzi Pasca and Line Tremblay.

The Royal Albert Hall’s auditorium has this year been divided into two by set designer Jean Rabasse creating two enchanting intimate spaces where each half of the audience faces the other. This is the first time that Cirque have used this design layout and it creates a wonderful experience for the audience.

One of the highlights of the evening takes place when Mauro launches the clowness (Valentyna Paylevanyan) who has congenital dwarfism. She bounces into the audience strapped underneath four large balloons. The audience is encouraged by both performers to continue launching her around the auditorium, joining in the act. An unexpected part of the show that’s a sheer delight to watch and become part of. It appeared that Paylevanyan was enjoying the interaction.

Another highly entertaining act during the performance was the Paradis act which saw The Korean Cradle and the Tramponet (a combination of trampoline and safety net).  Audiences watched in awe as the female performers spun between two high platforms making the performers appear completely weightless. You have to admire the level of trust and confidence these performers have in each other in these acts.

The huge cast of circus performers in the Cirque du Soleil makes everything they perform look effortless and weightless. From the opening act where a smaller group of female aerial performers use the three huge chandeliers to perform a range of entertaining aerial acts.

Costume designer Dominique Lemieux has created an enchanting vast array of costumes from the heavenly angels in white, the bight harlequin clown costumes to the Pantomime horse who breaks free! The range of designs can be seen in the accompanying photographs.

Over the years I have seen a few of the Cirque du Soleil productions and Corteo is bar far the production I have seen and highly recommend catching this while it is in London at The Royal Albert Hall.

For more information about Corteo-Cirque du Soleil please visit the link below.

Five Stars.

Photo credit Andrew Paradise.

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/events/2025/corteo?url=%2Ftickets%2Fevents%2F2025%2Fcorteo%2F

https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/united-kingdom/london/corteo/buy-tickets

To celebrate 40 years of dreaming the impossible, Cirque du Soleil return to the Royal Albert Hall in January 2025, with their most joyous and jubilant show, CORTEO.