Cirque du Soleil at Royal Albert Hall

We review Corteo - Cirque du Soleil’s latest show at London’s most iconic venue and deep dive into the history of the show in London.

Transcript

00:00Hello, I'm here at the Royal Albert Hall, one of London's most iconic venues,

00:05which will be home to one of the world's most iconic shows, Cirque du Soleil.

00:11Last year, Cirque du Soleil excited Londoners with their musical and acrobatic production of

00:16Allegria, and this year, in 2025, the Elevated Circus returns with a new production,

00:22Corteo, and I was lucky enough to go to the premiere of the show this month,

00:27and it made for quite a different production than the ones normally put on at the Royal Albert Hall.

00:33Corteo has a very Italian, Mediterranean feel, and there is a first of its kind at the Royal

00:40Albert Hall. The stage is central in the arena and divides the venue from the Royal Albert Hall's

00:46organ in a straight line to door six entrance, with each half of the audience facing the other

00:52half, which at first is quite jarring as an audience member, but it definitely offers a

00:57unique and interactive atmosphere for sure. Cirque du Soleil started its much-loved annual residency

01:03at the Royal Albert Hall in 1996, and it's now a staple of the entertainment calendar here.

01:09I had previously caught up with some of the stars of Allegria in their last production.

01:14Here is what they had to say about performing at the iconic Royal Albert Hall.

01:20So, Ahmed, how does it feel to be playing at the Royal Albert Hall and in London?

01:26Oh my goodness, you know, it's kind of a dream come true, you know, it's such an amazing place,

01:31you know, such a history in this place. There's so much meaning in it, you know, the story,

01:36everything, so for us performers, you know, all the greatest performers have been here,

01:42and, you know, makes you feel kind of like a great one too.

01:45But no, to me, it's amazing, it's just something that we were waiting for so long, you know,

01:49so we're finally here, finally our training's here, and I just can't wait to perform,

01:53it's really a dream come true.

01:56Amazing, and I saw that, so you started trapezing when you were

01:59five years old, can you just talk to me about how you kind of got into it?

02:02Well, I'm a third generation of circus family, so I was kind of born into it,

02:07and of course trapeze has been my passion since I've been five, six years old that my brothers

02:13started doing it, we are five brothers.

02:16And do all your brothers do it as well?

02:18All of my brothers do it, yeah, here I only have two brothers performing with me,

02:23so to me, you know, it's just part of my life already, but it's something that I've

02:28fallen in love with since I was a kid, you know, I've been performing since I'm 10 years old,

02:32so it's been quite a while, you know, it's been a long ride, but for sure an amazing one.

02:37It's amazing, because, you know, we're traveling, Cirque du Soleil has different touring shows that

02:41travel the world, and each show is on for anywhere between 10 years or 20 years,

02:47so it's really long runs, and we spend basically 52 weeks a year, all together,

02:53traveling around, performing and mesmerizing thousands of audience members.