| Saltimbanco | |
|---|---|
| Company | Cirque du Soleil |
| Genre | Contemporary circus |
| Show type | Touring arena show |
| Date of premiere | April 23, 1992 July 31, 2007 |
| Creative team | |
| Director | Franco Dragone |
| Director of creation | Gilles Ste-Croix (1992) Carmen Ruest (2007) |
| Composer | René Dupéré |
| Costume designer | Dominique Lemieux |
| Set designer | Michel Crête |
| Choreographer | Debra Brown (1992) Hélène Lemay (2007) |
| Lighting designer | Luc Lafortune |
| Sound designer | Jonathan Deans (1992) François Desjardins (2007) |
| Make-up designer | Nathalie Gagné (2007) |
| Mask designer | André Hénault (1992) |
| Clown act creator and acting consultant | René Bazinet (2007) |
| Production manager | Pierre Guillotte (2007) |
| Other information | |
| Preceded by | Nouvelle Expérience (1990) |
| Succeeded by | Mystère (1993) |
| Official website | |
Saltimbanco is the oldest major touring show of Cirque du Soleil that remains active in some form. Saltimbanco ran from 1992 to 2006 in its original form, performed under a large circus tent called the Grand Chapiteau; its last performance in that form was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on December 10, 2006. A new adaptation of the show started touring North America on July 31, 2007, with its first stop in London, Ontario, Canada. The current version is staged in arenas, with shorter stops in each city it visits.
The show is described by Cirque du Soleil as a celebration of life. Its creators say they developed it as an antidote to the violence and despair prevalent in the 20th century.
English has lost the word 'saltimbank' from current usage; but it is still familiar in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian as 'saltimbanco', and in French as 'saltimbanque', meaning 'street acrobat' or 'entertainer'.[1] According to the company's site, the word "saltimbanco" comes from the Italian "saltare in banco", which means "to jump on a bench." The etymology of the word reflects its acrobatic associations. A 'salto' is a somersault in Italian; 'banco' in this connection is a trestle holding a board, set up as a temporary stage for open-air performers. 'Saltimbanchi' were thus those who performed somersaults on a temporary platform -- wandering acrobats, performing as buskers in the open air, the platform giving their audience a better view.[2]
Being Cirque du Soleil's longest running performances[3], Saltimbanco has carried some major milestones with it. In 2011 Saltimbanco was the first show by Cirque to be played in Turkey[4], and in 2012 the first show in Slovakia.[5]
Saltimbanco's set plays on opposites and contradictions located within a cityscape. The rosace is actually made of metal rings which allow light to filter through like leaves on a tree. The lighting is very cinematic in effect due to the usage of different colored gels. The facts listed below are from the arena format of Saltimbanco, although some of these are also applicable to the grand chapiteau tour as well.[3]
The 51-member performance troupe includes multiple musicians, singers, acrobats, and characters.[6][3]
The acts in Saltimbanco are a mix of more traditional circus acts contrasted with modern acts.[7][8][3]
The costumes in Saltimbanco are bright and vivid in color to accentuate the dynamism of the urban city. The colors utilized for the costumes are all primary colors: cyan, yellow, magenta, and green.[9]
The Saltimbanco score was written and composed by René Dupéré, and was released as a studio album on October 9, 1992. The music has a range of musical influences from the classical to the modern. Saltimbanco marked the first time Cirque du Soleil's music used an invented language for the lyrics, a tradition that has persisted in most of the company's subsequent musical scores.
The original soundtrack features the vocal work of Canadian vocalist Francine Poitras. In 2005, Cirque du Soleil re-recorded and released the soundtrack to update its music. Some songs were completely re-recorded, while others had new instrumentation added and included Poitras's original vocal track. Additional and new vocals were provided by Laurence Janot, a French singer who was touring with the show at the time. Every track was slightly edited in some form from the original CD.
Several other limited editions of the album have been released. In 2001 Cirque du Soleil Musique released a limited edition of the original 1992 soundtrack featuring two additional tracks, "Arlequin" and "Adagio" (performed by Laur Fugere). Another limited edition of the CD, Saltimbanco Live in Amsterdam, was created and distributed exclusively to staff members of Saltimbanco. The employee special edition features a live, in-house recording of an entire performance and is considered a collector's item.
Below is the list of tracks featured in the 2005 re-release of the album and alongside are the acts during which they are played.
Saltimbanco toured around the world several times during its original 14-year tour under the Grand Chapiteau. It played its final show in the Royal Albert Hall in London on 1 February 1997. Saltimbanco was revived the following year on 14 October 1998, and went on to tour the Asia-Pacific region. The show played for another nine years, becoming the first Cirque du Soleil show to tour South America, with visits to Santiago, Chile (March 2006); Buenos Aires, Argentina (May 2006); and São Paulo (August 2006) and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (October 2006). That tour's final performance was staged in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 10 December 2006.
Following its closure in December 2006, Saltimbanco was configured into an arena show format, and re-launched in July 2007 to commence an extensive North American tour, visiting cities and areas that Cirque du Soleil had previously been unable to visit. The tour started in London, Ontario and subsequently toured Canada and the United States. Saltimbanco’s three-year tour ended in Columbus, Ohio. The show moved to Europe in 2009, the third time the production had visited Europe.[10]
The following colorboxes indicate the region of each performance:
EU Europe NA North America SA South and Central Americas AP Asia/Pacific OC Oceania AF Africa
Arena tour2007 schedule NA London, ON - From 31 Jul 2007 to 5 Aug 2007 2008 schedule NA Québec, QC - From 3 Jan 2008 to 8 Jan 2008 2009 schedule NA Tupelo, MS - From 9 Jan 2009 to 11 Jan 2009 2010 schedule EU Salzburg, AT - From 13 Jan 2010 to 17 Jan 2010 2011 schedule EU Lille, FR - From 5 Jan 2011 to 9 Jan 2011 2012 schedule EU Gdansk, PL - From 19 Jan 2012 to 22 Jan 2012 |
Grand Chapiteau tour1992 schedule NA Montréal, QC - From 23 Apr 1992 to 2 Jun 1992 (show première) 1993 schedule NA Costa Mesa, CA - From 30 Jan 1993 to 14 Mar 1993 1994 scheduleAP Tokyo, JP - From 11 Mar 1994 to 11 Sep 1994 1995 schedule EU Amsterdam, NL - From 9 Mar 1995 to 13 Apr 1995 1996 schedule EU London, UK - From 5 Jan 1996 to 28 Jan 1996 1997 scheduleEU London, UK - From 2 Jan 1997 to 1 Feb 1997 1998 scheduleNA Ottawa, ON - From 14 Oct 1998 to 1 Nov 1998 1999 schedule OC Sydney, AU - From 7 Jan 1999 2000 schedule AP Hong Kong, HK - From 25 Jan 2000 to 19 Mar 2000 2001 schedule AP Fukuoka, JP - From 9 Feb 2001 to 8 Apr 2001 2002 schedule EU Amsterdam, NL - From 14 Feb 2002 to 14 Apr 2002 2003 schedule EU London, UK - From 7 Jan 2003 to 6 Feb 2003 2004 schedule EU Seville, ES - From 16 Jan 2004 to 22 Feb 2004 2005 schedule EU Manchester, UK - From 6 Jan 2005 to 27 Jan 2005 2006 schedule NA Mexico City, MX - From 13 Jan 2006 to 5 Feb 2006 |
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