Pagliacci
Subscription Dates:
Saturday, May 9 at 7:30pm
Sunday, May 10 at 2pm
Thursday, May 14 at 7:30pm
Saturday, May 16 at 7:30pm
MUSIC AND LIBRETTO BY RUGGERO LEONCAVALLO
The show must go on, but how? For Canio and his traveling troupe, painted smiles and colorful costumes belie infidelity and betrayal. The façade is shattered when a hidden affair is revealed and a lighthearted night at the theater gives way to jealousy, suspicion, and ultimately violence. As the line between performance and reality blurs and the drama onstage begins to mirror the turmoil offstage, Pagliacci begs the question—does art imitate life, or does life imitate art?
Estimated Run Time: 1 hour 43 minutes with 1 intermission
Sung in Italian with English captions projected above the stage.
CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM
Composer Biography
Learn MoreRuggero Leoncavallo
Italian composer Ruggero Leoncavallo was born in Naples on April 23, 1857. Though it was not performed publicly until some time later, Leoncavallo completed his first opera Chatterton in 1876, before his twentieth birthday. Not long after, Leoncavallo fell on hard times and became a café pianist and sometime teacher in Paris, London, and Egypt…
Synopsis
Learn MorePROLOGUE
Tonio the clown announces that what the audience is about to see is a true story and that actors have the same joys and sorrows as other people.
ACT I
The same Sicilian village, 1949. A small theatrical company has just arrived and Canio, the head of the troupe, advertises the night’s performance to the gathered crowd…