Pagliacci

Ridi Pagliaccio, e ognun applaudirà!
Tramuta in lazzi lo spasmo ed il pianto;
In una smorfia il singhiozzo e il dolore…
Ridi Pagliaccio, sul tuo amore infranto!
Ridi del duol che t’avvelena il cor!
(Canio, Act I, Scene 4)

Ruggero Leoncavallo's masterpiece is back on stage at the Teatro dell'Opera, which chooses the title of the Neapolitan composer to celebrate Franco Zeffirelli on the centenary of his birth.

The opera in two acts with a realist imprint was one of the most loved shows by the famous director, who was the director and set designer in the extraordinary staging created in 1992 for the Costanzi Theater, later revived with great success.

Inspired by a real event, Pagliacci is set in the 1960s in a ruined city in Southern Italy where a company of actors, acrobats and jugglers arrives aboard a camper. Here, against the background of a railing house, the protagonists move between fiction and reality, giving life to a dramatic and bloody story of passion, hatred and jealousy.

The musical direction is entrusted to Daniel Oren, who returns to the Capitoline stage after thirteen years and already on the podium at the first performance. Stefano Trespidi takes up Zeffirelli's direction with the lights by Vinicio Cheli.

On stage, with the colourful costumes by Raimonda Gaetani, is a prestigious cast: Nino Machaidze and Valeria Sepe (Nedda – Colombina); Brian Jagde (Canio), making his double debut in Rome and the role,  alternating with Luciano Ganci; Amartuvshin Enkhbat and Roman Burdenko (Tonio-Taddeo); Matteo Falcier (Beppe); Vittorio Prato (Silvio).

Photo: C.M. Falsini