Pop Goes The News – There will be no new Cirque du Soleil show this year in Montreal and Toronto.

The break comes after the world premieres under the “Grand Chapiteau” in Montreal’s Old Port of Luzia in 2016 and Volta in 2017.

“Cirque du Soleil will not present any show this summer,” confirmed spokesperson Elise Tellier. “We don’t have any big top show in creation at the moment.”

This isn’t the first time Cirque has sat out a summer. In fact, it has only staged new big top shows in 15 of the last 27 years. (There were no new productions in 2015 or 2013.) In 2011, it brought Totem back to Montreal, where the show had premiered the previous summer.

On Monday, Cirque announced that Corteo, which debuted under the big top in Montreal in 2005, will run at the city’s Bell Centre from Dec. 19 to 30.

Although it remains based in Montreal, Cirque du Soleil is majority-owned by Texas-based TPG Capital. China’s Fosun Capital Group has a 20 per cent stake and Canada’s Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec and Cirque co-founder Guy Laliberté each own 10 per cent.