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What do you do when your planned season opener bites the dust? Fly in the stars and put on a concert performance of a verismo favourite. 

Exceptional singing, an auspicious conducting debut and a staging that is both sophisticated and emotionally involving make this production an unequivocal winner.

Mascagni's stirring music and gripping storyline cast their spell over a festival audience at the edge of the Baltic Sea.

Notwithstanding director Pippo Delbono's narcissistic excesses, his staging confirmed itself as effective and penetrating.

Tenor-turned-director José Cura transplants the action from southern Italy to Buenos Aires. 

Pippo Delbono, an advocate of experimental theatre, tests the audience's patience at Opera di Roma, masking some enjoyable musical performances.

David McVicar's uninspiring Cavalleria rusticana remains problematic, but a strong Pagliacci leaves the New York audience gasping. 

After its Christmas break, Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci return to the Royal Opera in Daminano Michieletto's arresting production. 

Even stronger than first time round, Michieletto's impressive staging is complemented by an outstanding double role debut from Hymel and a heartbreaking Santuzza from Elīna Garanča.

Opera North's Little Greats festival continues with two deeply contrasting short operas - a grimly tragic and austere version of Macagni's Cavalleria rusticana and a frothy and hilarious production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial by Jury.

A remarkable performance for State Opera of South Australia from Rosario La Spina as Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana and Canio in Pagliacci was evidence of the brilliant tenor he has become.

One wonders why Emma Dante's concept, which explores the plight of women crushed by romantic catastrophes, is not done more often.

Damiano Michieletto's inspired intertwining of the standard double-bill of Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci makes for vivid storytelling, the whole supported by an excellent cast solidly directed by Andrea Licata.

Despite occasionally brilliant singing, the Norwegian National Opera fails to raise seasonal spirits with a dramatically inert Cavalleria rusticana and a shaky Pagliacci.

Welsh National Opera may have reached the ripe old age of seventy but it's very much alive and kicking.

Benjie del Rosario ignites a thrilling Pagliacci, while Cavalleria rusticana is potentially as good but marred by intelligibility and balance issues.

The Met’s revival of David McVicar’s year-old take on the perennial Verismo twins strikes out emotionally in Cavalleria rusticana but scores high in Pagliacci. Working on the same set by Rae Smith, flanked by the forbidding stone walls of the town church, Cavalleria is dark, dark, dark – the very picture of a poor, unhappy Sicilian hill town.

A gripping double bill of  “Cav &Pag” from Italian director Damiano Michieletto at Covent Garden includes a few surprise guest appearances. 

Mario Martone's Cavalleria rusticana—Pagliacci returns to La Scala, with results that do not always convince. 

The Met's new production of Cav and Pag boasted strong musical performance, but its production, despite some interesting ideas, was not completely successful.

“Sorry for my meddling. I am the director of this opera.” Before the curtain opens, in a prologue to the prologue, Delbono shows up and addresses the audience. 

As I left Holland Park after last night’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, I found myself wondering what they’d put in the orchestra’s cups of tea at the interval. Or, perhaps, what was it that conductor Stuart Stratford said to them.

Nothing says “Happy Easter” like a bit of alcohol-fuelled murder on the church steps, right? With their new double bill of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, the Norwegian National Opera certainly seems to think so!The two productions were done on practically the same sets, albeit with a few differences, which did create a rather wonderful sense of continuity from the fir

120 years after the Metropolitan Opera in New York paired Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci in a single performance, the tradition of staging these representative works of verismo opera in a double bill continued this weekend with a production under the direction of Lo Kingman, Hong Kong’s home-grown doyen of opera.

​In each case, you know the murder is coming. In each case the music is explosive and closes the opera: there is nothing left to say except Canio's simple words: "La commedia è finita.

Elīna Garanča gibt als Santuzza ein beeindruckend gefühlvolles Wiener Rollendebüt.

Leider können auch die schönste Musik, ein bestens disponiertes Orchester und ein wunderbares Sängerensemble den Gesamteindruck des Abends nicht retten.

Sérieuse et sans condescendance, profitant d'un plateau vocal de premier plan, la mise en scène de Damiano Michieletto séduit le public bruxellois.

Zwei Verismo-Klassiker, die sich nach kurzfristigen Umbesetzungen auf unterschiedlichem Niveau präsentierten, wurden von Roberto Alagna in Höchstform zusammengehalten. 

Proposition étonnante, la programmation des deux oeuvres dans une même soirée fait le pari des contrastes, mais parvient difficilement à se tenir à distance d'un traitement narratif très vertical et moralisateur.

Entre overdose visuelle et auditive, le Maestro Carella a eu fort à faire pour sauver le célèbre duo Cav/Pag à l'Opéra de Toulon. Il y est parvenu !

El tenor norteamericano Gregory Kunde se enfrentaba al doble reto de debutar como Turiddu (Cavalleria rusticana) y Canio (Pagliacci) en la temporada lírica de ABAO, en el Palacio Euskalduna de Bilbao, con una cuidada dirección musical de Alessandro Vitiello y una nueva producción de corte clásico a cargo de Joan Anton Rechi.