(Credit: Bob Shomler) Opera San José opens the new year with the operatic double bill of Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana” and Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci.” The operas will star soprano Maria Natale as Santuzza and tenor Christopher Oglesby as Turiddu in “Cavalleria Rusticana” and baritone Kidon Choi as Alfio in “Cavalleria Rusticana” and Tonio in “Pagliacci.” The cast will be rounded out by {…}
Connecticut Virtuosi has unveiled its 2025-26 slate. Here are vocal performances on offer. Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci” returns to the stage in a new production featuring Jax Hussler as Canio, Emily Tate Daniel as Nedda, Jonathan R. Green as Tonio, Eliam Ramos as Silvio, and Mario De La Garza as Beppe. Performances will be held in New London, Middletown, and Hartford. Performance {…}
(Photo Credit: Daniel Welch) If you had to boil down the one constant connecting thread of opera, romance would likely be at the top of that list of possibilities. Simply put, what connects us to the greatest of operas is usually a great love story. Think “La Bohème,” “La Traviata,” “Le Nozze di Figaro,” “Tristan und Isolde,” “Der Rosenkavalier,” etc. {…}
The San Diego Opera is set to present Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci.” The production will be presented on Nov. 1 and 2, 2025 at the San Diego Civic Theatre with Yves Abel conducting. Christopher Mattaliano will direct the production with a cast that includes Jonathan Burton, Hailey Clark, Kidon Choi, Timothy Murray, and Arnold Livingston Geis. In a statement, David Bennett, the {…}
(Photo: © Geoffroy Schied) In Francesco Micheli’s new staging of Mascagni and Leoncavallo’s iconic opera, Munich transformed for a night into Palermo. With a unified production for both “Cavalleria Rusticana” and “Pagliacci” telling the story of a migrant’s journey from Sicily, the director turned a traditional duo into a memorable night, though his decision to set it in the 1960s {…}
Marble City Opera is set to close its 2025-26 season with two performances of Ruggero Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci” on June 5 and 7, 2025. The performances will be held at the A.K. Bissell Park in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The work returns to the company after it presented a “socially-distanced version of ‘Pagliacci’ in August 2020. In a statement, Marble City Opera’s Executive {…}
(Photos: ©Fondazione Teatri di Piancenza) As the 19th century came to a close, during a period of artistic transition, young composers sought to innovate and redefine the operatic language. It was in this context that, almost fortuitously, the most emblematic diptych of Italian musical theater and the ultimate prototype of verismo opera emerged: Pietro Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana” and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s {…}
(Credit: Ken Howard) Pittsburgh Opera is set to present the verismo double bill “Cavalleria Rusticana” and “Pagliacci.” The operas, which showcase possessiveness, machismo, and jealousy, will be performed on Nov. 9, 12, 15, and 17, 2024. Mascagni’s opera, which takes place on Easter Sunday, will star Eve Gigliotti as Santuzza, Sebastian Catana as Alfio, Audrey Welsh as Lola, Rafael Davila {…}
Mid Wales Opera is set to present “Pagliacci” this autumn. The cast includes Robyn Lyn Evans, Elin Pritchard, Philip Smith, Sam Martston, and Johnny Herford. It has been arranged for a chamber ensemble of five instruments by music director Jonathan Lyness. There is also an English translation by Artistic Director Richard Studer. “I can’t wait to get started on this {…}
(Photo: Marc Brenner) They go together like cookies and milk…like bacon and eggs…like Adam and Eve! Nooooooo! Not “Cav” and “Pag,” as the fans insist on calling the operas, but Roberto Alagna and Aleksandra Kurzak! The golden couple, currently on at the Royal Opera House in “Cavalleria Rusticana,” consolidated their positions as world class artists here with spellbinding performances from {…}
Although they are best known for films such as “The Cocoanuts” (1929), “At The Circus” (1939), and “A Night in Casablanca” (1949), one of the Marx brothers operatic-related films was just as spell-binding and deserves its place in history. When “A Night At The Opera” first premiered in 1935 in the continental United States, the brothers were still under contract {…}