On Thursday, April 7th, Cirque du Soleil held a press conference for LUZIA: A Waking Dream of Mexico – directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca and presented under the Big Top in Montréal’s Old Port starting April 21st.
Where rain predicts the future and light reveals the truth, the name LUZIA (loo-zee-ah) fuses the sound of “luz” (light in Spanish) and “lluvia” (rain), two elements at the core of the show’s creation.
And previously we’d learned that LUZIA’s creative team comprised 16 creators under the artistic guidance of Guy Laliberté (Guide) and Jean-François Bouchard (Creative Guide):
• Daniele Finzi Pasca — Co-writer and director
• Patricia Ruel — Director of Creation
• Julie Hamelin Finzi — Co-writer
• Eugenio Caballero — Set and Props Designer
• Giovanna Buzzi — Costume Designer
• Simon Carpentier — Composer and Musical Director
• Edesia Moreno Barata — Acrobatic Choreographer
• Debra Brown v Acrobatic Choreographer
• Sylvia Gertrúdix González — Acrobatic Choreographer
• Max Humphries — Puppet Designer
• Martin Labrecque — Lighting Designer
• Johnny Ranger — Projection Designer
• Jacques Boucher — Sound Designer
• Philippe Aubertin — Acrobatic Performance Designer
• Danny Zen — Acrobatic Equipment and Rigging Designer
• Maryse Gosselin — Makeup Designer
COSTUMES
When Costume Designer Giovanna Buzzi sat down with the co-authors of LUZIA to imagine the costumes, they decided to steer clear of the folkloric aspects of Mexico and Mexican culture and to avoid potential clichés, especially when it comes to the color palette.
https://www.cirquefascination.com/?p=7984
SET DESIGN
Set Designer Eugenio Caballero had three overriding objectives when he envisioned the LUZIA set. First, he wanted to convey the idea of monumentality and of grandeur commonly associated with Mexico. Second, he wanted to make sure that each spectator would have a great view of all of the acts, regardless of where they are sitting under the Big Top. And third, he set out to create an environment where location and timeline changes would be quick and seamless.
The creative team decided to bring the element of water into the overall set design – a first for a Cirque du Soleil Big Top show. Hence the idea of a cenote, a naturally occurring sinkhole or cistern the Mayan believed was a sacred gateway to the afterlife. The cenote is a powerful symbol at the heart of Mexican lore and geology.
https://www.cirquefascination.com/?p=7993
MUSIC
The music of LUZIA takes the audience on an incandescent journey to the heart of the show’s imaginary Mexico. The score whisks spectators away on a voyage of exploration that takes them from a traditional village to a desert by way of a tropical jungle, to the seaside and all the way to an alleyway in a bustling metropolis.
For LUZIA, Composer Simon Carpentier wrote a hot, lively score with distinctive Latin American flavors. A little like the Running Woman – one of the emblematic characters in the show –, the music jumps playfully from style to style, from one rhythm to the next, from emotion to emotion, striding across landscapes as joyfully as across musical boundaries.
The LUZIA album takes Carpentier’s original music written for a live acoustic setting and passes it through the filter of the electro-pop of Nortec Collective’s Bostich + Fussible, infused with brassy Mexican and Latin American sounds. As of April 1st, iTunes users in North America (U.S./Canada/Mexico) can enjoy an exclusive sneak peek of the LUZIA album with a free download of the song “Así Es La Vida.” With every pre-order of the album on iTunes, customers will also receive an instant download of “Tiembla la Tierra.” The full LUZIA album will be available exclusively on iTunes as of April 15th and on other sites globally as of April 22nd. For album pre-order and exclusive free download, visit www.itunes.com/luzia.
https://www.cirquefascination.com/?p=8001
A number of amazing attendee videos were posted to Instagram during the Press Conference, which give us a brief look into what to expect when the show debuts. Check them out at the following links!
Plus…
https://www.instagram.com/p/BD52TM_mTDw/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BD51J0bmTBC/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BD51g2xGTCG/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BD51ql5SYFL/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BD52zoJGTEt/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BD53yNgGTG6/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BD56CgcG9-0/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BD57vw7Rq4E/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BD58ScUnDOD/
Stay tuned for more!