Previews: CIRQUE DU SOLEIL CORTEO at T-Mobile Center

The Cirque du Soleil production "CORTEO" is scheduled for performances over four days beginning on May 25 and extending through May 28 at Kansas City's T-Mobile Center in the Downtown Power and Light District. This powerful and complex production, written and directed by honored Swiss Director Daniele Finzi Pasco has been touring internationally since its premiere in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on April 21, 2005.

Cirque du Soleil translates from the French as Circus of the Sun. This entertainment company is a glistening jewel in the starry, French-Canadian firmament. Since springing to life at Montreal in the late 1970s and early 1980s, each production has been distinct from its more than forty brothers and sisters. This is not the circus of the Ringling Brothers and P.T. Barnum. There is very little like it. Currently, sixteen editions of Cirque du Soleil tour or are in residence at locations around the world. Two more are planned for Hawaii and Mexico during the next year,

BroadwayWorld had the rare pleasure of talking with the world renowned Swiss Writer and Director Daniele Finzi Pasca. Finzi Pasco spoke remotely from Italy to explain his thinking when he created CORTEO.

Signore Finzi Pasca is a gentleman of the first order. He hails from Lugano, Switzerland, located on the shores of beautiful Lake Lugano in the Italian identifying area of Switzerland. He is the scion of a family of artists and photographers. Originally a gymnast and a humanitarian, Finzi Pasco was initiated into the theatrical community of Europe by the clown Fery in the tradition of the commedia dell' arte.

Finzi Pasca came to public attention after serving a short prison term when, as a matter of conscience, he refused induction into the military. Upon his release, Finzi Pasca began performing a one man show called ICARO; developed during his incarceration. ICARO is based on the classical story of ICARUS, the boy who flew too close to the sun.

Together with his brother, Marco and Maria Bonzangio, they founded the Teatro Sunil in their hometown. This led to a blended discipline monikered as "Theatre of the Caress." Athletics are combined with acting, buffonade, and dance.

Signore Finzi Pasca has performed in over twenty countries over a thirty-year career. In 2005, he was commissioned by Cirque du Soleil to create CORTEO. CORTEO is Italian for cortege, the parade that many times accompanies a funeral procession. Finzi Pasca has been awarded the New York Drama Desk Award for Best Director, has directed the closing ceremony for the Turin Winter Olympics, operas in several countries, completed several projects inside the Russian Federal, and was awarded the 2012 Swiss Hans-Reinhart-Ring, the most prestigious theatrical award from his home country.

Finzi Pasco has called CORTEO acrobatic theater. Circus and clown have their own connotations here in the new world. According to Finzi Pasco, "each country has its own clown tradition" and these may differ significantly from country to country. The Italian tradition finds its roots in the commedia dell'arte from the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is "full of poetry."

"It is my intent to tell a complete story and move the audience as if in a dream," said Finzi Pasco.

CORTEO is the story of a Mauro, a central clown character in the Italian tradition. His life is over, and what we witness is Mauro's last performance. He is surrounded by the members of his circus family who have contributed to make his life so full.

"It is both the story of Mauro and his friends who circled the globe, sharing pleasure wherever they went."

We associate the funeral procession with a sad occurrence paying tribute at the end of a life. CORTEO is a joyous and amazing celebration of life.

CORTEO is the frame around which this very clever, dangerous, exciting, inventive and technologically complex cirque rolls. It is thrilling. It is spine-tingling. It is emotional, but from all accounts and Finzi Pasca's intention, audiences walk away entertained, amused, but with a feeling of gentleness and completion. They feel "caressed" by what has happened around them.

The power of the athletes plunges the audience through the joyous CORTEO spectacle. The massive set pieces transport its audiences into a lyrical world between heaven and earth.

CORTEO has played internationally to audiences of more than nine-million souls during more than four thousand performances with a cast of more than fifty artists/singers/athletes from eighteen different countries.

CORTEO plays at Kansas City's T-Mobile Center, May 25-May 28th. Tickets for this high demand event may be purchased online at the T-Mobile Center.