May 29th, 2008 inmacau
Get your Cirque du Soleil Macau tickets HERE
Her name is ZAIA.
And she is the star of the US150 million Cirque du Soleil Macau production which will be a permanent addition to Macau’s entertainment scene from August, it was announced at the official press conference today.
The press conference for Cirque’s first permanent show in Asia was held in an 1,800-seater custom-built theatre in The Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel, which is now the permanent home of Cirque Macau. After the official launch in August, there will be 2 performances a day, 6 times a week.
The Gala premiere on August 28, will not only celebrate the official launch of Cirque Macau, but is even more likely to be a star-studded affair because it coincides with the 1st anniversary of The Venetian itself. But while the stars have to wait until August 28 to see any part of the show, we were one of the the lucky few who got to attend today’s press conference were treated to a sneak preview of ZAIA.
ZAIA is the name of the young female heroine who journeys into space. The director Gilles Maheu got his inspiration from a postcard, which had a drawing depicting a young girl in an astronaut outfit sitting down on the moon.
So ZAIA is about “a young girl who journeys into space on a strange, yet familiar voyage of self-discovery. As she travels, she encounters the beauty of humanity and eventually brings it back with her to share with the inhabitants of earth”.
It doesn’t matter if the synopsis sounds rather airy fairy and fluffy. You don’t go to the circus for a complex storyline and character development (watching a movie costs a lot less and is more likely to do the job). Cirque has attracted a crowd of 80 million spectators worldwide because it combines jaw dropping acrobatics, amazing feats of strength, grace and beauty, stunning choreography and beautiful sets and special effects.
If what we got to see in the preview is an indication of what to expect in terms of the quality of the show – ZAIA certainly delivers the goods.
Cityscapes is the name of the first segment and will be the opening of ZAIA. Talk about starting things off with a bang. From an empty stage, skyscrapers, literally, rise out of the ground. It did remind me a little of Wynn Macau’s Rotunda golden tree, which rises out of the ground every half hour or so.
Cirque’s stage is actually 80 foot high, which is why props hidden underneath can suddenly rise out of the ground.
So from this –
- to this in a matter of minutes.
You have your strong men, break dancers, clowns, dancers, skateboarders, tap dancers – just your typical city crowd really, who all happen to be wearing outlandish costumes and make-up and all have fantastic bodies.
In typical whimsical Cirque style, there were cyclists suspended from the ceiling, pedaling away – upside down.
A huge sphere suspended from the ceiling drifted out from the back, and hanging from it by a piece of silk - a female performer, dancing through the air.
Just your average day - hanging around
A huge sphere suspended from the ceiling drifted out from the back, and hanging from it by a piece of silk - a female performer, dancing through the air.
The second act which we got to preview was of a male and female performer doing some amazing acrobatic work while being swung around and up and down by pieces of stretcy rope from the ceiling.
Though the performers were petite and lithe, they twirled and spun through the air as effortlessly as petals blowing in the wind.
How any guy could look graceful skimming through the air like superman, suspended 20 feet in the air by rope wrapped round his arms clenched by his side is beyond me. How he does it with a woman riding him like a surf board, is just mind blowing.
I only knew he was human because I saw him panting a little at the end of the act.
The backdrop, which has 3,000 fiber optic lights was created apparently, to accurately depict the night sky, and all its stars. I wouldn’t be able to point out Mars, Venus or any constelations, and I definitely wouldn’t be able to tell you if they were in the right place. But I do know it makes a pretty amazing background, especially when you have confetti streaming down.
Kudos to the 65 technical crew and 75 artists who must have worked and trained overtime to get ready for the event.
Preview performances begin on July 26.
Tickets are on sale from tomorrow for shows from July 26 to Oct 5.
Click HERE to get yours and stand to win VIP passes.
April 1st, 2008 inmacau
This is Yoshimi’s new friend
This is her dinner of Hainanese Chicken Rice
*Disclaimer*
The bird (above) is of no relation to the bird (top)
It is in fact, authentic Hainanese Chicken Rice, made by the original Singapore Meritus Mandarin Hotel’s Chatterbox Chef, who is now based in Rasa Singapura, which is located in The Venetian’s Festivita Foodcourt.
A few of us from the Macau.com team recently went out for dinner at 3-Monkeys restaurant, located in St. Mark’s Square in The Venetian Macao. Owned by a Singapore group, Solutions17, which also manage World Wide Wings - a sports bar offering 40 types of chicken wings and over 30 types of beer (that’s where Yoshimi’s chicken friend lives), Rasa Singapura, which specializes in Singapore dishes, all at The Venetian.
Other than the Hainanese Chicken Rice, which came with lashings of ginger, dark soy sauce and chilli, we also got the Singapore laksa. (above)
I realized I had bitten off a little more than I could chew when my dish of beef spare ribs arrived. (above)
That must be one big cow. And yes, that is genuine chilli padi and sambal to the right. Apparently the beef ribs is shipped over from the U.S. and takes up so much space, it is stored in a warehouse, and pulled out as needed.
After a soup, appetizers and picking at other people’s food, I managed to make a reasonable dent in the ribs.
I was even tempted when the sizzling fajitas were delivered to the table next door.
Apparently, the burgers here are to die for.
I have walked past 3-Monkeys on several occasions and always get distracted by the giant grinning plush toy monkeys that are hanging around the premises. It may be a family-friendly jungle-themed restaurant, but believe me, there is nothing childish about the portions of food - which are gorilla sized.
There are 300 toy monkeys altogether in the restaurant, collected from around the world. The owners say their friends grab whatever monkey they see on their travels bundle them up in glad wrap, chuck them in cargo and fly them over to Macau.
According to Gwen (above, far left), who runs sister cafe - the iconic Monkey’s Cafe in Orchard Towers in Singapore, many of them are so big, that many would require their own seat, if they were brought on board. And yes, we hear that the drycleaning bills are huge.
Despite the fact, they are the delight of many children, who squeal and clutch at the furry critters, grown-ups aren’t immune to the charms of a giant grinning soft toy monkey either.
For restaurant information, click here.
March 19th, 2008 inmacau
Canadian diva Celine Dion loves her LV.
The reed-thin singer with the huge voice reportedly gave the security staff of The Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel quite a headache - and not by warbling an emotional ballad that went on and on and on…
In Macau for her Taking Chances concert, Celine, who performed to a full house at The Venetian’s 15,000 capacity Arena last Saturday apparently got a little emotional when her precious Louis Vuitton luggage was going through the standard security check - fearing that her designer bags may be scratched.
But hey, give the girl a break, she works hard for her money (she was performing 5 times a week for 5 years at Ceaser’s Palace in Vegas, taking in an estimated US400 million before ending her run in December).
The girl loves to shop - and she has a sense of humor. After paparazzi accosted her outside Cartier, where she had just bought some jewellery, the ever-friendly Celine quipped: “I do damage wherever I shop.”
We say, let the girl have her bling!
You gotta love a girl who admits that audiences at her Las Vegas shows were often tired, drunk, sick and in some cases asleep.
And you won’t find her dishing out lawsuits or getting teary on talk-shows over being ridiculed for her stage movements, conservative behavior and emotional songs - even when it’s her own fellow Canadians.
Maybe it comes from having actual talent, and a whopping 5-octave range, but Celine says she actually feels flattered that people take the time to impersonate her.Heather Mills should take a leaf out of Celine’s book.
Like the title of her hit of Titanic proportions, Celine’s heart really does go on. Forbes voted her one of the top 10 most generous celebrities in Hollywood in 2006, after raising more than US$1 million for UNICEF’s Tsunami Recovery Fund, and spending decades supporting charities.
Stay tuned for the concert review…
August 29th, 2007 admin
Today Macau Is Forever Changed
The long awaited hiatus is over. It’s sure good to be back on the bullhorn. Lots have happened since my last post. We’re now one brand, i.e. Macau.com: Your Macau Travel Insider. The other brand, and its garish orange, can now fade from memory.
Well, you’re likely not here to read about our corporate maneuvering, so I’ll give up the goods. Yesterday I spent the better part of the day at the world’s 2nd largest building: The Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel. Wow!
I first headed over as part of the media contingent in the early a.m. Having been in and out of Macau since early 2004 and here permanently for well over a year, the opening of Venetian Macao was the milestone in Macau development that I, along with much Macau, have been long awaiting. Its arrival was a little unreal for the lot of us that has watched the behemoth Venetian rise out of the Taipa mudflats. As my bus pulled into the back driveway and the intricacy of the Italian exterior became visible, I was overwhelmed by a sense that in the next moments Macau would inextricably change forever.
Once inside, I was awed at the scale of the building and the meticulous attention to detail. It will be difficult to explain in mere words the marvelous artistic and design delights which exist inside the sprawling complex. Frescoes that conjure images of Michelangelo’s masterful Sistine Chapel beautify the ceilings. Thick, highly colourful carpets and polished marble cover the floors. Statues, flowers, and adornments ornament the walls and open spaces. The Grand Canal, which is the shopping esplanade has hundreds of shops, each set within a vibrantly re-created Venetian building. Singing gondoliers transport young lovers and overwhelmed tourists. Arch bridges permit crossing from one side of the canal to the other and squares, the greatest being St. Mark’s, provide suitable area to gape at the surreal surroundings.
The press conference was less interesting for the information that was announced, as it was primarily very safe press release type info, and more so for Mr. Sheldon Adelson and his group. They were in high spirits and a few jokes were cracked, like Mr. Adelson wishing his competitors “Good Luck” with his fingers crossed. However he then countered to say that all groups should work to collectively market Macau as a destination and then fight for customers once they were here.
I returned in the evening with one of Macau.com’s shareholders, the publisher of Inside Asian Gaming, and the owner of Elevation Wines – the company that provided all of the wine for the evening’s gala event – to see the Grand Opening Show. While touring the main halls, the overwhelming opinion of our quartet and anyone else that has spent some time in Vegas was that the Venetian Macao dwarfs the Vegas properties. It’s huge.
On with the show… If you love Canto-pop you would have been in heaven. Awesome shows by A-Mei, David Tao, Grasshopper, and Alan Tam. Cirque du Soleil dazzled audiences with wildly captivating drama and thrilling acrobatic feats. The finale was a song by the legendary Diana Ross. I was amazed by her voice. It electrified the air. It was so rich and had such range. One of the best singing performances I’ve ever seen.
The best quote from the media press conference that in my opinion summarizes the mood from the evening and an opinion that I cannot emphasize enough is “…that the Venetian Macao represents a massive paradigm shift for Macao and the future of tourism development in Asia.” The Venetian and indeed the entire Cotai Strip is built for multi-night holidaymakers wanting world-class entertainment, accommodation, and dining. If the Venetian Macao is any indication of what’s to come, Macau is going to be one helluva place.
June 27th, 2007 Lee
As promised, I took another look inside…
As promised, I revisited Melco’s Crown Macau Casino (MPEL) yesterday (Tuesday 7 p.m. approx.). I thought what better way to get a feel for the place than to take the shuttle bus from the city centre. Well, true to my earlier report, a line formed waiting for the bus. I estimate a dozen or so individuals took the trip. As “burro” wondered, some people were just along for the ride. There appeared to be a few employees as well as a few individuals who did not go into the casino when we arrived. However, a good portion of the bus did enter the casino. I heard that there has been some active promotion on the part of the casino to bring people over to their Taipa property and true to this we were given a ticket that gave us a chance to spin the wheel when we arrived. My colleague’s ticket won that chance, but because he didn’t have his passport with him, he was thus ineligible…a bit disappointing.
The Crown Macau Casino has 5 floors. The first three are gaming floors, the fourth is a restaurant, and the fifth floor is a higher-minimums gaming floor. The first 3 floors had an active gaming scene. By this I mean there were a lot of tables in use, some to capacity but some empty. The central parts of the floors were busier than the fringes. Definitely, it wasn’t shoulder-to-shoulder like it can be at the Sands sometimes, but on the other hand, the first 3 floors had a scene, i.e. you wouldn’t think “This place is dead anyway.” (Swingers quote). The fifth floor on the other hand was empty minus a few individuals. This could be that minimum bets are more or less equivalent to my monthly rent. As for the punters, I heard more Mandarin (mainland) than Cantonese (HK, Macau, Guangdong Province).
In sum, I’ve walked through the Crown Macau on three occasions now (Grand Opening, one month ago, yesterday). Each time the casino has been busier than the last time. The Greek Mythology Casino in the New Century Hotel is right next door and it is one of the most profitable casinos in Macau. The location is probably the biggest obstacle, but as the Greek Mythology Casino has shown, it’s an obstacle that can be overcome with the right marketing. (I understand they cater exclusively to mainland tour groups, so the Crown Macau is likely going to pursue a different model.) My general feeling is that Macau is maturing into the type of destination that will attract visitors interested in visiting the Crown Macau. Maybe the Crown Macau is not packed this month, or this year, or even next year, but the property is in line with what most developers are planning and anticipating. I’m going to try and check the Crown Macau out again this weekend to note the difference.
By the way, I ate at the Crown Macau’s Monsoon noodle shop. Yum. I had Cantonese wonton noodle soup with Chinese chives and honey glazed BBQ pork. Delicious and very nicely presented.
Any comments, questions, etc. click below…
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