Delirium, Nitza March 14, 2006

WEBSITE & TICKETS: here

Cirque du Soleil presents DELIRIUM, its first-ever live arena event. The North American Tour kicks off in Montreal January 26th, 2006 at the Bell Centre, followed by two more shows on the 27th and 28th.

Created and directed by Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon, DELIRIUM is a multifaceted event of unprecedented proportion featuring Cirque du Soleil music remixed. Driven by an urban tribal beat and awe-inspiring visuals, musicians, singers and dancers transform the arena into joyous frenzy.

DELIRIUM is the quest for balance in a world that is increasingly out of sync with reality. It pushes the limit of arena performance through technical magnitude, human introspection and creative prowess.

DELIRIUM is an urban tale, a state-of-the-art mix of music, dance, theatre, and multimedia. Pumped by this re-energized Cirque du Soleil rhythm, the DELIRIUM tour transports audiences into a universe of delirious sensory folly.

TURNING MUSIC INTO MOTION

For the first time in Cirque du Soleil history, lyrics have been created for the instrumental tracks and real words integrated in place of invented language, bringing to the music a fresh poetic dimension. The texts are in English, French, Spanish, Wolof and Portuguese. Robbie Dillon, who contributed texts for Cirque du Soleil's ZUMANITY, composed the English lyrics for DELIRIUM.

In all, 20 of Cirque du Soleil's most memorable musical moments ? originally created by René Dupéré, Benoît Jutras and Violaine Corradi ? have been re-mixed by Quebec producer, composer and arranger Francis Collard, who deftly injects new life into these powerful classics. The result is a hyper-energizing urban tribal beat that explodes with electronic sounds, percussions and world rhythms.

Also for the first time, Cirque du Soleil musicians and singers will be center-stage as their music will be the driving force of this gigantic event.

Amongst the musicians lending to this eclectic mix of sounds are percussionist brothers El Hadji Fall Diouf and Pape Abdou Karim Diouf of Senegal; Ga?a, an energetic group with Brazilian and Peruvian roots dipped in funk, soul and electro jazz; keyboardist and band leader Ric'key Pageot; Italian-born percussionist Raffaele Artiglieri; Brazilian Italo-Cuban singer Dessy Di Lauro and Canada's rising star Jacynthe.

THE STAGE AND PROJECTIONS

This unique, large-scale event may be the most massive technical production ever created to tour arenas. A 130 foot two-sided stage bisects the arena, submerging the audience in the huge set. Placing all this equipment into an arena is a complex puzzle normally reserved for stadiums.

540 feet of projections dominate the scene - the equivalent in width of almost four IMAX screens - setting the stage for a colossal multimedia presentation. Images projected range from prerecorded visuals to manipulated live feeds that create interactions between the show and the audience.

THE ARTISTS

DELIRIUM showcases 44 talented and multidisciplinary artists, 8 of whom have collaborated with Cirque du Soleil in the past. Each artist has been selected for individual virtuosity. They include 11 musicians, 6 singers, 18 dancers, 8 acrobats and 4 main characters. In all, 20 countries are represented in the troupe, including 2 Americans: Karl Baumann (Las Vegas) who portrays one of the main characters and dancer Alexandra Apjarova (New York).

To heighten the musical experience, DELIRIUM is infused with acrobatic dances as well as classic Cirque du Soleil feats including aerial, acrosport and hand balancing acts.