The show had a premonitory title: that circus troupe that came from Quebec and that did auditions in all the cities through which it passed to incorporate new artists from all disciplines into its big tent literally generated Alegría with its performances in Spain in 1998 in Madrid -where it started on February 19, 1998 together with the late Vicente Calderón- and Barcelona. They would be the start of many more shows over the years. And today Cirque du Soleil has celebrated its quarter century in Spain with a party at the Círculo de Bellas Artes attended by the Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta, and in which he has announced that to celebrate these 25 years of circus recovers his mythical show Alegría, his unmistakable seal after a total of 17 shows, 22 cities and 9.5 million viewers in our country.
The new Alegría will embark on an ambitious tour of seven consecutive cities over 14 months, beginning in Madrid (from November 15, 2023) and Barcelona (from February 10, 2024) and visiting five more cities to be announced soon. Stéphane Lefebvre, President and CEO of Cirque du Soleil, assures that “we are very fortunate to be able to count on the fervor and support of the Spanish public year after year. Spain has always been a key market for us and, 25 years later, there is a collection of precious memories that unite us”.
Thus, they will recover for the Spanish public their classic Alegría reinvented for the new generations. First released in 1994, Alegría has become one of Cirque du Soleil's most popular shows, with 14 million viewers in 255 cities in 40 countries in more than 19 years of touring. Its Grammy-nominated soundtrack, which included the iconic eponymous song, remains the best-selling and best-played Cirque du Soleil album. In 2019, coinciding with its 25th anniversary celebration, Alegría reopened in Montreal in a whole new light, reinvigorated by a cast of 53 acrobats, clowns, musicians and singers.
But Cirque du Soleil has also announced that its show Ovo (egg, in Portuguese) will go on tour in San Sebastián, Gijón, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Granada in the Palacio de Deportes format. The show explores the beauty of biodiversity in all its contrasts and vitality through the daily life of a group of insects, with powerful crickets bouncing on the springboards or hypnotic spiders wriggling inside their web.
