Grüss Circus coming to Monaco soon
Just a few weeks after the 32nd Monte Carlo International Circus Festival, the big top in Fontvieille is getting ready to host the new show of one of the most famous circus families. From 25th to 27th April 2008, the Alexi Grüss National Circus will be presenting Orchestra, a show in celebration of the horse, music and the circus, performed by three generations of the family of the same name.
On his visit to the Principality to present the show to the press, Alexis Grüss speaks both of his life and Orchestra. A director of the circus, riding master, musician, this exceptional man embodies 34 years of circus history which he unfolds with relish… His presentation is peppered with anecdotes (his elephant which will soon be fitted with a chip in order to travel without mishap), moving tales (losing the last horse from the 60 he owns), steps back in time (the beginnings of the circus), from allusions to his passion, music (he has 7000 records…)… Alexis Grüss according to whom “art is work erased by work” charms and it is quite natural that people say: “We can’t miss his next show”.
Ten “Grüss” (from the thirty making up the troupe) will be performing under the Big Top in Fontvieille on 25th April. Alongside Alexis, an award winner of the Monte Carlo Festival (Gold Clown in 2002), the public will (re)discover his wife Gipsy Bouglione, his daughter Maud, his two sons Stephan and Firmin and their wives Nathalie and Maud and their children… Louis, the youngest, just 9 years old, is already in the ring. The entertainers will be accompanied by numerous horses (Boulonnais, thoroughbred Arab and Frisian) and an elephant. Stephan Grüss is staging and conducting the music - another key feature of the show. To pieces of jazz, classic and popular music, the orchestra of twelve musicians will set the tempo as the performance unfolds. The show, split into 15 scenes, opens to a gigantic metronome. “Life is a rhythm whose first beat is the first beat of the heart” Alexis Grüss likes to point out. As for the performance, it will be interspersed with equestrian acts, ranging from acrobatics to the “high school” and of course freestyle. Tightrope walkers, jugglers, acrobats and musical clowns are also on the programme. A show lasting over two and half hours. What a performance!