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Carlsen Center Event: Run Away to the Circus
Johnson County Community College
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The Performing Arts Series at Johnson County Community College will bring the fun of an outdoors big top to Greater Kansas City with Zoppé, a traditional one-ring European circus. Shows will be at 4 and 8 p.m., Friday, May 15, and 11 a.m., 3 and 8 p.m., Saturday, May 16, Sar-ko-par Trails Park, 87th St. and Lackman Road, Lenexa (west of the swimming pool).
Zoppé — an Italian Family Circus takes audiences on a nostalgic trip to bygone days, far from the digital age — a world of acrobatics, equestrian showmanship, canine capers, clowns, non-exotic animals, daring trapeze acts and lots of audience participation. Zoppé is not the high-tech production of a Las Vegas-style cirque, but a legacy to the 1840-1940 circus heyday.
“The Zoppé circus evokes something from a picture book: the clown, the trapeze, the dancing dogs, the ring and the tent,” wrote the New York Times.
The legendary Zoppé family has been entertaining audiences for 166 years in a show that features 22 performers, 14 dogs and six horses that travel around the world performing under a striking Italian-styled one-ring big-top tent.
The history of the Zoppé family circus is one of romance and family. In 1842, a young French street performer named Napoline Zoppé wandered into a plaza in Budapest, Hungary, where he fell in love with a beautiful equestrian ballerina named Ermenegilda.
Since Napoline was a clown, Ermenegilda's father saw him as beneath her and disapproved of their relationship. The two ran away to Venice, Italy, and founded the circus that still bears their name. Over the generations, the circus survived wars and political upheaval in Italy and the rest of Europe.
Alberto Zoppé, Napoline's great-grandson, inherited the circus almost 100 years later. A great equestrian in his own right, Alberto toured Europe with the circus until Cecil B. DeMille brought him to the United States for his Oscar-winning film, The Greatest Show on Earth.
Alberto would remain in America, producing circuses for Ringling and starting his own family. Together with his wife Sandra, Alberto ushered in a new generation to continue the family tradition. Their children, Giovanni, Tosca and Carla, along with their spouses, have all been active in the family business. Giovanni Zoppé, a sixth-generation circus performer, revived the Zoppé family circus in America three years ago.
Giovanni credits his family with helping to maintain the grand circus traditions, especially his father, Alberto, who at 82 years old still manages to wow the crowd every time he steps into the ring.
The enduring star of the show is and always has been Nino the clown, a role now passed from Alberto to Giovanni.
“We try to touch every emotion during the show,” Giovanni says. “Audiences will laugh, they’ll cry and they’ll feel for the characters. It’s more of an event than a show.”
Tickets for Zoppé are $25 adults and $10 youth, available by calling the Carlsen Center box office, 913-469-4445, or online at www.jccc.edu/TheSeries in advance; cash only at the park gate.
