Leoncavallo: Pagliacci & Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana (Dutch National Opera 2019) [Blu-ray]

Pagliacci and Cavalleria rusticana are probably the most famous double bill in the history of opera. Packed with love, infidelity, betrayal, jealousy and murder, these two pinnacles of the Italian opera repertoire have it all. Both are classic examples of 'verismo' operas, telling so-called realistic stories about the lives of ordinary people. Here, hot-headed southern temperaments spark off rivalries and threaten relationships. Whereas Pagliacci is fuelled by the tension between everyday life and the aesthetic world of the stage, Cavalleria rusticana juxtaposes unbridled passion with profound faith.

Director Robert Carsen flips tradition by opening with Pagliacci and plays a masterful game of theatre-in-theatre, calling into question the nature of reality. Are the emotions we see on stage acted, or are they real? And in how far do we project ourselves into the characters? When the masks come off, truth becomes theatre and theatre becomes truth. Poised somewhere in between is the chorus, navigating us through the worlds of fact and fiction. Or, as the playwright Luigi Pirandello put it, ‘The drama is inside us; we are the drama’. Carsen’s vision eschews clichés: no commedia dell’arte characters in this Pagliacci, nor Sicilian couleur locale in his Cavalleria rusticana.

"It was an exciting night at the opera. Three leading American singers were making their Dutch National Opera debut and powerhouse mezzo Anita Rachvelishvili her much-anticipated return. All of them delivered on their promise, as the audience, grabbing every opportunity for mid-performance applause, made clear." (Bachtrack)

"Anita Rachvelishvili and Ailyn Pérez are forces of nature in Robert Carsen’s genius production." (OperaWire)