Cirque du Soleil's show debuts at Expo Milano 2015

Allavita!, an exclusive show of Canada's Cirque du Soleil created for Expo Milano 2015, made its debut at the Italian world exposition earlier this week.

The show is inspired by the expo's theme dedicated to sustainable and healthy food. It will be held every night from Wednesday to Sunday until Aug. 30 in the open theater of the Expo's site, northwest of Milan.

The storyline is about a young boy, Leo, who receives the gift of a magic seed from his grandmother and is guided by a puppet, Farro (Spelt), into a fantastic world of nutrition, love and energy.

The cast of Allavita!, which was made exclusively for Expo Milano 2015, is composed of nearly 50 artists from different countries, of which more than 20 Italians.

Founded in 1984, the Cirque du Soleil has travelled across over 330 cities and 48 countries to play to almost 160 million spectators. Now it has around 4,000 employees worldwide, including more than 1,300 artists. This year, 18 shows are simultaneously presented around the world.

The Quebec-based organization has been the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the Emmy, Drama Desk, Bambi, ACE, Gemeaux, Felix and Rose d'Or de Montreux.

Cirque de Soleil announced last month that it has sold its majority stake to U.S. and Chinese investment firms for an undisclosed amount.

Guy Laliberte, founder of the circus empire, agreed to sell control of Cirque du Soleil to TPG Capital, a Texas-based private equity fund, ending his 30-year run as the controlling shareholder and chief of the world's most popular circus production company.

A statement from Cirque du Soleil said that Fosun, one of China's leading privately-owned groups based in Shanghai, will acquire a minority stake via a fund under its management and will work to launch and expand the Cirque du Soleil in China. Endit