Two trendsetting operas are entwined together in one production. San Francisco’s War Memorial House will stage Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci this September. It is believed that Cavalleria Rusticana altered the face of Italian opera. It was written by Pietro Mascagni during the late 19th century which pioneered a new an idea in storytelling called verismo.Verismo stories set the trend of depicting the basic passions of everyday people and were a far cry from the dramas of kings and queens and gods. Works of verismo deal with the tenets of love, sex, jealousy ,honor and violence. Already a known figure of theatre, Mascagni and his contemporaries took this form of drama to the opera. In a verismo, the music demanded the performers to prioritize the emotion of the subject matter instead on focusing on the beauty of the sound.So, the singers could sob, shout and screech wherever the scene demanded it. Pagliacci was created by Ruggero Leoncavallo, Mascagni’s contemporary. He wrote librettos and operas, but much like Mascagni, he could not replicate the success of Pagliacci, which was his first hit.Cavalleria Rusticana opens with an Easter Monday that turns bloody. Turiddu is found dead in the street but who can his grieving mother blame? Three people come to her mind; Turiddu’s jilted lover, his married mistress and her jealous husband. As the village is preparing to celebrate Easter, the unholy consequences of forbidden lusts are exposed bare. In Pagliacci, a group of performers appear on stage to present a comedy about a cuckolded husband and his wife. Fiction and fact run very close to one another for this troupe. Tonio, the hunchbacked clown who is pulling the strings off stage, hints to the audience that a dreadful game is at play.The director skillfully intersects the plots of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. Both the stories are set in the same rural Italian village, where the villagers are preparing for Easter and eagerly looking forward to watch a new play called Pagliacci, which is coming to their town. Some of the characters of Pagliacci are seen in the background of Cavalleria Rusticana, and vice versa. It’s an intelligent and innovative device that plays on the common themes of both the operas; that are misplaced lust, betrayal in love and violent revenge.As fact and fiction merge seamlessly the revelation of the subplots makes it a treat to watch this double bill merged in a single production that has the necessary components of definite viewership.The opera will open on September 7, 2018 and run through September 30, 2018 at the War Memorial House, San Francisco Opera, 301 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102-4509For details, visit: www.sfopera.comClick on the slideshow for a sneak peek at the opera.http://www.blouinartinfo.com Founder: Louise Blouin
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