This week I was invited to see the debut performance of Cavalia Odysseo at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Ontario. At first look, you’d think this was an extravagant horse show, but it was much more than that! It combines a play, Cirque du Soleil, a concert, and of course a horse show all into one amazing performance. The show was about 2 hours long and really well done. Paramount Fine Foods was able to invite 1,000 newcomers to the show, so it was a packed event. It’s so great that the City of Mississauga and Ontario promotes the city and activities within it so well.
Odysseo features 65 horses and 48 riders, acrobats, dancers, stilt walkers, and musicians! That is an extreme amount of people and animals that cohesively put together this show. Not only that, but they come from all over the world; The horses are from Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, United States, and even Canada. The artists come from around the world, including Brazil, United States, France, Italy, South Africa and Canada to name a few. I don’t really take the time to appreciate all the hard work that goes into these types of shows, so I made sure that was my main point of focus while attending this show. Everything from the advertising, to the show costumes and LIVE music/singing was really well done. I was so impressed with the live music and seeing someone singing throughout the whole performance because I really thought it was all off a soundtrack.
I’m really upset that I forgot my camera at home and had to take my photos with my cellphone. The lighting inside was horrible for photos, so I’m sorry for the bad quality. They had the cutest horse stuffed animals for sale, as well as a ton of other items available for purchase.
Overall, Cavalia Odysseo was really well put together. The long hours of training and rehearsing has really paid off! The only thing I was a bit turned off from was the ticket prices for the show; My tickets were complimentary from Flip Publicity, but if I wanted to buy tickets myself, you’re looking to spend $39.50 – $139.50 CDN plus taxes and fees. I understand why it’s so expensive (training and housing the horses, costumes, lighting, music, setup, etc), but this is much more expensive than a concert. The food prices were also a bit over the top ($7 for popcorn and $4.50 for a drink!). Even though it’s pricey, it’s probably a once in a lifetime show that you’ll see, so I think it would be worth it.
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit:
www.cavalia.com/Mississauga