Corteo

Corteo
Company	Cirque du Soleil
Genre	Contemporary circus
Show type	Touring production
Date of premiere	21 April 2005 (Montreal)
Creative team
Director	Daniele Finzi Pasca
Director of creation	Line Tremblay
Set designer	Jean Rabasse
Composers	Philippe Leduc Maria Bonzanigo
Additional composers	Jean-François Côté Roger Hewett
Costume designer	Dominique Lemieux
Makeup designer	Nathalie Gagné
Sound designer	Jonathan Deans
Lighting designer	Martin Labrecque
Dramaturgical analyst	Dolores Heredia
Acting coaches	Hugo Gargiulo Antonio Vergamini
Acrobatic equipment	Danny Zen
Other information
Preceded by	Kà (2005)
Succeeded by	Delirium (2006)
Official website

Corteo /kɔːrˈteɪ.oʊ/ was a Cirque du Soleil touring production that premiered in Montreal, Canada on April 21, 2005. As of May 24, 2005, Cirque du Soleil had broken its record of spectators for the première location in Montreal; more than 200,000 people had viewed the production, far outpacing the prior record of 180,000 tickets sold for Varekai during its première. The show's final performance took place in Quito, Ecuador on 13 December 2015.

Cortéo—an Italian word meaning "cortège" or procession—was a contemporary circus show about a clown who watches his own funeral taking place in a carnival-like atmosphere. It was partly inspired by The Grand Parade: Portrait of the Artist as Clown on display at the National Gallery of Canada.

Directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca, founder of the Swiss clown troupe Teatro Sunil and director of several shows by Cirque Éloize, Cortéo was presented in the round under a large tent. The action took place on a large circular stage consisting of concentric rotating rings. This allowed one area of the stage to rotate while another remained stationary. At times during the performance, the stage was divided by a large curtain illustrated with a painting called the Cortéo Procession. There were entrances/exits at either side of the circular stage.

During its big top tour, Cirque du Soleil divided the Grand Chapiteau in two by creating a stage that spanned the diameter of the tent, thus allowing the audience to face one another as well as giving a performer's perspective to them. Built into the 104 feet (32 m) long stage were two turntables with a diameter of 41 feet (12 m). Corteo's set had a special overhead transport mechanism, dubbed the "Patience", which had two rails fitted with four platform-like carts each. Each cart had a lifting capacity of 1,000 pounds (450 kg) and a top speed of 4 feet per second (1.2 m/s). At its highest point, it was 41 feet (12 m) above the stage.

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