Cirque du Soleil to transform Royal Albert Hall for ‘enchanting’ production of Corteo

The Quebec contemporary circus company, which celebrates its 40th birthday this year, will transform the iconic London venue with a stage that splits the hall into two halves and each half of the audience facing the other.

Corteo, which means procession in Italian, shares the unique story of a clown who dreams about his own funeral playing out in a carnival atmosphere, with his fellow circus performers in attendance.

The show features countless feats of jaw-dropping acrobatics including aerial acts swinging from Chandeliers and floating over the audience on giant balloons.

Get the latest headlines, straight to your inbox, with LondonWorld’s free emails

Since its premiere in Montreal in 2005, Corteo has played to over 11 million spectators, in 22 countries, on four continents.

Along with its unique staging Corteo is also the heaviest show that Cirque du Soleil has brought to the Royal Albert Hall, suspending a massive 67 tonnes from the grid (equal to the weight of 11 elephants hanging from the ceiling).

“The overall process to bring a show like this here lasts about a year,” Gerard Edwards-Webb, Cirque du Soleil’s Technical Director told LondonWorld.

“First of all we have to validate that the show will actually fit in the room and do some general studies about how it might work.

“Then as the time progresses we go into a long term design process between the show itself and the building to establish the most efficient way of doing it.

“Everything we install as well we have to consider not only how to make it physically work in the room but how long it will take to put it in as the Royal Albert Hall is a very busy venue.”

Edwards-Webb, who is based in Montreal, spends his year travelling around the world to oversee all of Cirque du Soleil’s touring shows.

He and his team will have a week to install Corteo in the Royal Albert Hall in time for opening night on January 9 2025.

“We have a finite amount of time to install. The show will arrive in about 25 trucks from Lyon in France, so a relatively simple transfer for us,” Edwards-Webb explained.

“It's a fight to make everything fit in. 

“We’re going to put 65 tonnes of equipment on the floor here and we’re going to hang 67 tonnes out of the roof.

“We also have to consider the dynamic loads that are put on the equipment on the sets and rigging by the artists.”

He also explained how high stakes his work is; “We take it all very seriously,” he said.

“The safety of our artists, crew and audience is the most important thing, because it is a high risk style of show.”

“This is our 29th year welcoming Cirque du Soleil to the Royal Albert Hall, and this is the first time that we have been able to reconfigure the Hall like this, dramatically and uniquely changing the whole perspective within the auditorium,” said Matt Todd, Director of Programming for the Royal Albert Hall.

“It is wonderful for the Hall to be used in this way and will without doubt be one of Cirque du Soleil’s most extraordinary performances.”

Cirque du Soleil: Corteo will run from Thursday January 9 to Sunday March 2 2025.

Tickets can be purchased via Cirque du Soleil's website or directly from the Royal Albert Hall.