Customer Reviews

Cirque du Soleil - Midnight Sun

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

In order to appreciate this DVD, I think you have to see it more as a concert than a typical Cirque performance. As a live, outdoor concert, it works. The DVD captures the excitement of the crowd and if you especially enjoy the Euro-music of Cirque, this one's for you. It is light on acrobatics, but visually interesting, and the music is (overall) great. It can't compare with Varekai or Allegria; it's not that kind of show. I don't get the negativity of the other reviews, but we all have our subjective opinions. I'm glad I got this one.

Midnight Sun is watchable and even enjoyable if you can fast foward through the boring lackluster dancing and the boring and weird acrylic wall dancing (WHAT IS THAT???). I really gave this a chance because it looked so innovative but after a while it become down right embarrasing.

The aerial acts and wheel balancing were breathtaking and I loved the music and singing. I suspect that much of the uneveness of this production is that is was a one of a kind performance and not refined for touring. Some of it had a thrown together atmosphere. Also, it was certainly much more fun to be there in the audience.

An uneven but interesting show worth a look as long as you are not expecting another Varekai.

First of all, I am a huuuuuuge Cirque du Soleil fan. I have virtually all of the DVDs and several of the soundtracks. Even my MySpace page is themed after it. My favorite shows are Alegria, Varekai, Quidam, La Nouba and even Saltimbanco and Dralion were good. Corte was probably my least favorite... until now that is. I was very eager to watch this show but oh was I disappointed. :(

One of the reasons I love Cirque du Soleil so much is the lovely music and wonderful artistic displays and costumes. This show butchered just about everything I thought was so cool about Cirque du Soleil and they managed to pull it off all in one night. Someone was either high or passed the buck to some other group to put this disastrous piece of show together. If I were the founder of Cirque du Soleil, I'd take this DVD outa print and spare the embarrassment.

Like the other reviewer, I agree, the performers looked like adults throwing tantrums and the Plexiglas wall was just too much. Aah the French. ;) Most of the performers failed to maintain a presence of character. They simply looked like people performing a bad routine that was thrown together at the last minute and so they were trying hard not to screw it up. There's very little expression or emotion conveyed through any of their actions or expressions (except to see them out of character and smirking and chatting with each other) and, as a result, you don't buy into the fantasy or emotional experience that Cirque du Soleil is so famous for creating.

Unfortunately, I also hated the music with only a few small exceptions. The singers were mostly terrible; often off key, and what's with the chick dressed up like Paris Hilton? Or how `bout "stick in her hair lady"??? How in the world did she get a singing job in the show? Wow! The orchestra was also sub-par on many performances. The horn section was often out of tune (yes - out of tune) and the band just wasn't together. I was really disappointed. :(

The good performances were the guy on the German Wheel (from Quidam), The Statue: Vis Versa, which is the muscley couple that contort and balance each other in weird positions (also from Quidam - they were in perfect character), a few of the singers were ok (including Francesca Gagnon), and some of the backup dancers kept in character. Other than these few exceptions it was lackluster entirely. Even the lighting, fireworks and smoke was a disappointment in their presentation. I've seen better open air rock concerts than this and this was supposed to be their 20 year anniversary show. Sigh.

Parents should note that there's a bit more "sex appeal" in this show (nothing extreme at all and no nudity but a little racy - hey, it's French), but there are worse reasons than that to make you want to hide yours and your children's eyes and ears from this awful performance. I'm sorry to be so negative but the show really bummed me out. The tango scene near the beginning of the show did not flow. Uh, you might say it was "lusty" but it wasn't passionate or expressive of emotion and it just was some really crappy dancing. Fortunately, my DVD player has fast forward where you can hear the audio at high speed too (and the pitch doesn't change), so the best part was watching boring performances disappear quickly. ;)

Dare I go on? Ok, you talked me into it. They destroyed just about every song they performed except a couple, which were adequate. Perhaps some of that is due to a limitation of the size of this live performance so I'll give the sound crew their fair share of the blame and just the natural complexity of such a massive coordinated event, but this show just didn't connect like so many of the others. The song Alegria was decent in this show (and carried some emotion), though not as good as the DVD performance. Francesca Gagnon (a.k.a. The Singer in White) was lovely on Alegria, but not at her peak here - I still enjoyed her performance though). Her version of Querer was, unfortunately, not good at all (in my opinion). :( I would much rather recommend her new solo CD than this DVD any day.

All in all I would not even recommend this show as a rental (even to diehard Cirque fans). It was not entertaining. It will not be watched again in my collection. :( How's that for a review? I'm just being honest. Save your money and buy one of the good DVD shows like Alegria, La Nouba, Varekai, or Quidam. Even the earlier DVD's before the show reached the level of sophistication they are at today are much more enjoyable to watch than this! Even better, go to a live performance!

1 generous star, and that's only because I love Francesca Gagnon's beautiful voice and there were a couple of fair moments, but over all this is a horrible show - certainly not something you would want to give to a friend to introduce them to Cirque du Soleil.

This was part of the Montreal Jazz festival.Not much cirque on this dvd, and not one of my favorites, more music but remember this was done outside, and there was not much else you can do at a jazz festival .So if your looking more for cirque get one of the other dvds.

This is an excellent product for those who know of the Quidam aerialist Isabelle Chasse. She was taped when there were VCRs, and now that there are DVD's this DVD disc captures her.

Somehow, they lost the "Cirque" in this one. This one was primarily song and dance, with a few scattered performances in between. And of these, not very many were the sort that left you in awe or wonder, thinking "they must have taken years of practice to get that right!"

A few previous acts are revisited, but in some cases, acts that were graceful and flowing are turned into little more than angry, aerial thrashing. A good many of the performance arts bits are more remeniscient of the National Endowment for the Arts than of Cirque du Soleil.

I did have to keep in mind that this is a wide-open street performance, so that limits things a lot from the outset. A typical Cirque is a complete, packaged, immersive environment that surrounds and encompasses an audience; wrapping them warmly in a complete embrace.

This is none of that. There's no warmth of Alegria. There's no forboding, somber, darkness of Quidam. There's no intensity of Varekai.

This simply is not a Cirque du Soleil. More of a San Francisco Street Carnival.

Good morning, I have read others reviews. First, this is a LIVE concert from a music festival. Again, lets remember LIVE outdoor concert. They have some of the mobile acts. Sorry, they could not rig up high wire's and what not. The was part of a music festival. It appears some of the "true fan's" do not understand that Cirque Du Soleil likes to try new things. Someone said "rent" it before you buy it. If you still have a video rental shop and they are carrying it, Good idea. I am very happy with my copy. I am honored to have it with my collection of Cirque Du Soleil stuff.

This DVD had some good parts. The music was great. The costumes were awful. They had some good singers and a great acrobat that went around in a round thing. Then they had a very good act seen in the Barnom and Baley Circus. They also had a good act with some statues and a good act with some one in a fish tank. Now was the DVD great no it was not it needed a lot more great acts. But it had a few very good acts. It is a nice addition to the series which comes with 11 other DVD for 130.00 on Amazon. But out of the set of 12 DVD's I only seen one worse DVD than this one. So if you did not get it with the set don't spend 18.00 to buy it on your own.

SAVE YOUR MONEY!!!

This show does not even come close to the Cirque standard of performance that I have been witness to in the past. Had this been the first Cirque video that I had seen, I don't think I would have ever watched another. It seemed just thrown together. It didn't flow at all.

The performances were terrible. The dancers looked more like adults throwing tantrums than the lovers I assumed they were supposed to be. One performance looked like someone literally going crazy inside a box slightly larger than a coffin. Another performance was acrobats throwing themselves repeatedly into a plexi glass wall. I just didn't find them appealing at all.

This video was almost painful to watch. I kept thinking that it just had to get better. It did, about an hour in. And by that point there was only half an hour left.

The music was still good. I think if I keep this video, I will hook up my stereo to the DVD player and turn the TV off. So if you're looking for great background music, this would be a good dvd to buy. If you are looking for a good Cirque show, I would recommend any of their other DVDs. Either way, I would strongly suggest renting it BEFORE you buy it.

THIS IS MY ONE OF MY FAVORITE OF CIRQUE DU SOLEIL!!!!!!! I CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF IT! IT'S EXCITING!!!!!!