Cirque du Soleil gives Alegria to Kazan

Cirque du Soleil has come back to Kazan and surprised everyone again. On Wednesday night, the loved by Kazan audience Circus of Sun presented its show Alegria, rightfully called a legend.

Translated from Spanish, ‘alegria’ is ‘joy’ the circus lavishly bestows on the Kazan audience. The presentation in Kazan was a double joy, since Alegria will soon be closed down, its last appearance to be in December in Madrid.

“We have travelled all around the world with this show. We have always received fantastic reviews and continue to receive them in Russia. It is just that we have been everywhere, so probably the time has come,” Alegria press secretary, Vaness Napoli, explained for Tatar-inform.

Alegria is the circus’s longest show, this year turning 20 and having been over the time presented to over 14 million viewers in all parts of the world.

The show is focused on demonstrating human body’s abilities, quite often making the viewer amazed at what the human is capable of.

As in all Cirque du Soleil other shows, Alegria’s story revolves around the battle of generations. The setting is an imaginary kingdom, whose king leaves his realm, and the older and younger generations of his retinue begin to wrangle.

The show’s most vivid characters are Sorrowful old birds, representing the old nobility, convinced of own beauty and admiring own reflection in mirrors without frames. Dressed in heavily decorated costumes and masks, they, as do older people, often sit on the stage or, limping, walk along the isles among the audience. The younger generation, dressed in simpler, lighter and more airy costumes, opposes them.

The show engages 55 performers from 17 countries, in the 2.5 hours presenting 9 unique solo and group acts, including floor mats, a dance with fire knives, Russian crossbars, and others.

The performers of an acrobatic act with air crossbars earned the wildest applause. The act was performed at a breathtaking height of 12 metres on crossbars that, for the performers not to fall down, had to be installed with precision up to the centimetre. Fearless acrobats seem to slip down from the incredible height, causing involuntary women’s gasps, but instead of falling onto the floor they fly into the hands of catchers. The acrobats do fall down on the net in the finale but do it so masterfully the audience explodes with ovation.

The Alegria actors were bid goodbye with a generous round of applause and cries ‘Bravo’, ‘Thank you!’ and ‘See you!’. The next meeting will indeed happen very soon, since Cirque du Soleil will in July during Universiade present in Kazan a dedicated show.