'Odysseo' gallops into Irvine, raising massive big top
Jan. 7, 2016 Updated Jan. 8, 2016 8:59 a.m.
A formerly nondescript freeway interchange in Irvine, already enlivened with a flashy mural to its north, has been further transformed ? temporarily ? by the arrival of a massive, white big top.
On Thursday, the canvas ? which could wrap twice around the Hollywood sign and cover an area the size of a NFL field ? was raised at the southwest corner of I-405 and the 133 toll road.
Come February, the tent will house ?Odysseo,? a Cirque du Soleil-esque production starring 65 horses and 48 human performers, including musicians, acrobats, aerialists, riders and dancers.
Cavalia, the Montreal-based company putting on ?Odysseo,? said the 125-foot-tall White Big Top is the world?s largest touring tent.
?We call it the Ferrari canvas,? Eric Paquette, Cavalia?s communications director, said as workers scrubbed the fabric Thursday morning as it rose incrementally, shedding rain that had pooled on the it during the recent storms.
The tent, created in Italy, cost $2 million and covers 58,397 square feet.
?Odysseo? is playing in San Francisco through Jan. 17. It will debut in Irvine on Feb. 3. Matinee and evening performances are scheduled through Feb. 14.
The production premiered in 2011 in Quebec; more than 1.7 million people have attended shows throughout North America. This is Cavalia?s second production. Its first, an eponymous production, came to Irvine in 2007.
The show is taking place on empty Irvine Co. land on Laguna Canyon Road, across I-405 from a Tilly?s e-commerce building.
This summer, that building?s freeway-facing wall was used as a canvas for a temporary mural by artist Zio Ziegler through a collaboration with Tilly?s, Vans and Laguna Beach-based art gallery Artists Republic for Tomorrow. Ziegler covered the space with gigantic, patterned figures offset by an electric blue background.
Across the freeway, the climate-controlled ?Odysseo? tent will soon house a stage larger than Honda Center?s ice rink, an 8,103-square-foot screen on which landscapes will be projected during shows and seating for up to 2,000 people.
Contact the writer: sdecrescenzo@ocregister.com
