The Teatro Sociale di Rovigo is set to inaugurate its 2026-27 season with a production of Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci.”

The production, which will be performed on Nov. 13 and 15, 2026, returns after 20 years starring Fabio Sartorial Canio, Irina Lungu as Nedda and Ernesto Petti as Tonio.

Pier Giorgio Morandi will lead the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto in a production by Gabriele Lavia, which will be staged by Daniela Zedda.

In a statement Gabriele Lavia said, “We shall come to realize that Theatre and Life are, in fact, the very same thing—though not identical.” According to a press release Lavia’s starting point for the production was a childhood memory: a small traveling puppet theatre seen amidst the ruins of Catania in the early post-war years. The setting evokes this memory through a dilapidated space, in which a house and a small stage face one another—and ultimately blur into one.