Pagliacci / Cavalleria rusticana

When, in 1888, the music publisher Edoardo Sonzogno announced a competition for young Italian composers, who were invited to submit a one-act opera, he had not the slightest inkling that the victorious piece would become a timeless blockbuster. The 25-year-old Pietro Mascagni sent Cavalleria rusticana, which he had just completed. The premiere, in 1890 in Rome, was a true sensation, and the verismo opera, depicting ordinary contemporary people, villagers and low social classes, would remain Mascagni’s greatest success. Ruggero Leoncavallo decided to follow suit and duly composed his very first opera, Pagliacci, in the verismo style. Premiered in 1892 in Milan, the piece met with an enthusiastic response. In 1893, the two operas were first staged as a double bill, and ever since they have been frequently performed together.

Pagliacci tells the tale of Canio, an actor who kills his attractive young wife Nedda and her lover on stage during a performance. In Cavalleria rusticana, the frivolous Lola re-establishes a relationship with her former lover, whom her husband kills in accordance with an ancient Sicilian custom. Both stories end with a jealousy-fuelled murder. The new production of the two operatic gems has been undertaken by the renowned Czech stage director, actor and musician Ondřej Havelka.