The renowned director Franco Dragone is no longer with us. Cirque du Soleil issued a press release on Friday confirming the information. His most famous projects for the Quebec business were Mystère (1993), Alegra (1994), and O. He is of Belgian descent (1998). Age-wise, he was 69.

In particular, the director has worked on major projects in Las Vegas, Macao, and Abu Dhabi, among other places. One of her most well-known performances was Celine Dion’s inaugural run of A New Day residency concerts in Las Vegas, which debuted in 2003.

We are really sorry to hear of Franco Dragone’s passing. Our thoughts and prayers are with his friends, family, and the whole Dragone company. According to Cirque du Soleil management, Franco was a pioneer in his field. The filmmaker has collaborated on about 10 performances with the Guy Laliberté-founded company.Mr. Dragone, who has lived near to Quebec all of his life, learned about the Belle Province while he was in his thirties and in the early 1980s. He has previously performed and directed in theatre in Belgium.

He first encountered Guy Laliberté while teaching commedia dell’arte courses in Quebec and at the National Circus School in Montreal. As a result, he started to create performances for Cirque du Soleil, a brand-new organisation at the time.

He moved the Circus forward

Mr. Dragone has transformed the setting, said Professor Louis Patrick Leroux of Concordia University, who specialises in theatre and circus. He thinks Cirque du Soleil has been “catapulted” to the list of the most prestigious enterprises in the world because of its shows.

Masks and commedia dell’arte served as inspiration for Franco Dragone’s introduction of European aesthetic aspects. Pierrot, Colombine, and Scapin appeared in each of his productions, according to Mr. Leroux.

Also, Mr. Dragone “When it comes to the way the plays were structured, he adds, “we projected ourselves onto a figure who might be us, who experienced experiences and fantasies, and that’s what came out of it. This transferred the focus from the stage to the audience.

Although Franco Dragone has created several notable Cirque du Soleil productions, Mr. In O, Leroux claims that “everything is there, he gives it his all, there’s a large pool, and it’s inspired by the aquatic world. It’s his greatest work, and for good cause.”carnival of the 19th century, it’s baroque and rococo, and that’s it!

A murky legacy

Franco Dragone had achieved great success with O, one of his final performances with Cirque du Soleil. So much so that, according to Professor Leroux, he was able to “push Celine Dion to come and work in his little hamlet in Belgium to put on his performance since he didn’t want to fly.”

According to Mr. Leroux, he “explored what he might accomplish at Cirque” in the early 2000s in this manner. Then, in La Louvière, Belgium, he started his own business, Dragone, working on single projects.

Franco Dragone has visited Quebec a few times, most recently to stage Le Potager des visionnaires, an installation-event, on the roof of the Musée de la civilisation de Québec to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the city.

Despite the clear brilliance of his direction, his reputation has occasionally been tainted. Notably, he was mentioned in the 2016 “Panama Papers” and has been linked to allegations of money laundering. Later, in June 2020, Le Devoir revealed that he was under suspicion for committing $30 million in estimated worldwide tax fraud between 2005 and 2012 with five other people.

The professor remarks, “It’s extremely amazing to consider that he was doing political theatre in Europe in his youth and that he ultimately had a part in constructing one of the world’s most prosperous creative businesses.

Numerous media outlets reported that Franco Dragone died after a heart attack.