Corteo

Cirque Du Soleil's seventeenth show launched in 2005.

"Corteo" is the Italian word for cortege, which means "funeral procession". The story takes place in the deathdream of a turn-of-the-20th-century European circus clown. While this sounds terribly morbid, and the show opens with his mourners gathering round his deathbed, what ensues is extremely warmhearted and uplifting, a celebration of a life on Earth and a joyous homecoming in Heaven. The characters, besides the angels watching over the Dead Clown, are primarily his dear colleagues from the circus; their relationships provide the show's heart.

Corteo was filmed for TV and DVD in 2005 during the Toronto engagement and became the first Cirque show to receive a Blu-Ray release in 2008. The tent tour is spending 2012 in Europe.

This show contains examples of

 * Balloonacy: Real Life example with the "helium dance". The Clowness (a little person) is placed in a harness attached to several giant balloons, and from there drifts over the stage and audience—who helps her along on her flight.
 * Bilingual Bonus: The songs have Spanish or Italian lyrics. Notably, and probably due to the more-realistic-than-usual setting, this is Cirque's first tour in years to completely eschew Speaking Simlish / Singing Simlish; most of the dialogue is in English.
 * Catch Phrase: "I am calm!" for the Loyal Whistler (the ringmaster).
 * Costume Porn: The classical traditional circus outfits. Also counts as Gorgeous Period Dress.
 * Dying Dream
 * Everything's Better with Chickens: Early in the run, an Act Two segment called "A Not-So-Serious Act" featured performers who find their act interrupted by a rain of rubber chickens. The act is gone, but the chickens still turn up.
 * Everything's Better with Sparkles: The judicious use of a handful of glitter in the final moments of the duo-straps act.
 * Everything's Better with Spinning: Three acts invoke this: chandeliers, cyr wheel, and duo-straps.
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Teatro Intimo is truly intimate, because it's truly small.
 * Gentle Giant: The Giant Clown.
 * Man in White: The White Clown.
 * Motifs: Circles. The show presents death as a homecoming for the soul in question, and thus a life come full circle.
 * The stage, unique to Cirque, is circular instead of the traditional 3/4 thrust design; it's not an in-the-round setup (the side entrances for the performers split the seating into two halves), but it's close enough for symbolic purposes. As a bonus, several of the acts have the stage revolving as they unfold.
 * The cyr wheels.
 * The adiago duet is performed on and around a large, fixed hoop.
 * The jugglers are adept with rings and hoops.
 * The tightwire walker uses hoops as part of her routine, as well as a unicycle.
 * The Dead Clown is last seen riding a bicycle in the sky.
 * Nameless Narrative
 * Non-Ironic Clown: Most of the principal characters. A stated goal of this show was to create clowns that would be embraced by audiences, especially children, more familiar with the Monster Clown trope than this.
 * Ocular Gushers: The preshow has several of the Dead Clown's mourners gathering in the tent aisle and wailing their hearts out—and their "tears" leave those nearby damp.
 * Pantomime Animal: The horses.