After a few recent boo-fests at the Royal Opera – the badly-staged rape during Damiano Michieletto’s production of “Guillaume Tell” earlier this year caused a particularly loud furore - it now seems de rigueur to hoot at absolutely everything. Michieletto’s new double-bill production of “Cavalleria rusticana” and “Pagliacci” isn’t great, but it isn’t terrible either. There were cheers as well as jeers. So what got the booers’ goat on press night?It wasn’t the sopranos. Eva-Maria Westbroek (Santuzza) has a wonderful line in rafter-rattling anguish, and Carmen Giannattasio (Nedda) brings a luscious sound and coquettish vulnerability to her role. Young Greek baritone Dionysios Sourbis (Silvio) makes a gorgeously lyrical love-interest for Giannattasio too.Elsewhere the pleasures are more mixed, but still not boo-worthy. Michieletto sets both productions in a poor modern Italian town, complete with rusty satellite dishes, cracked pavements, and omnipresent images of the Virgin. Mascagni’s “Cavalleria rusticana” (1890), which tells the story of a spurned woman who instigates a revenge plot on her former lover, usually takes place in a town square: here, for no very obvious reason, it is set in and around a local bakery Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci” (1892), about a group of travelling actors embroiled in a tale of adultery and jealousy, is set in the cramped school hall of the same town.In a neat twist, Michieletto includes characters from each opera in the other, helping to glue the pairing together. Other directorial interventions are less secure. The director opens “Cavalleria” with a flash-forward to the climactic death of the tenor protagonist (played by a double). It makes little sense of the narrative and, since the real tenor is simultaneously singing a serenade offstage, is musically cloth-eared.“Pagliacci” traditionally takes place outdoors, so in this production various reasons have to be found for the expanded chorus to huddle together indoors in a small school hall. Michieletto’s solution – the rehearsal of a children’s nativity scene – looks cack-handed, with the supposed spectators all facing away from the children. Too often it feels like the director’s ideas are shoe-horned onto the story without supporting detail, or adding much in the way of clarification.Conductor Tony Pappano, usually a miracle-worker in the pit, creates some terrific moments (the famous “Intermezzo” from “Cavalleria is a magical example) but doesn’t feel on top of the score. The orchestra and singers occasionally part company, and because a certain lightness of touch is lacking in “Cavalleria” the cast often have to belt out their tunes at full blast. In the case of Aleksandrs Antonenko, who plays both Turiddu and Canio, it’s particularly unhelpful as his top notes are nervously insecure. It’s pretty grim too for baritone Dimitri Platanias (singing Alfio and Tonio), whose weak lower register gets swamped.Overall it’s a patchy evening: enjoyable in parts, but without the emotional kick-in-the-pants these operas can deliver when done well. Worthy of a ho-hum? Yes. Worthy of a boo? No.“Cavalleria rusticana” and “Pagliacci” are in repertoire at the Royal Opera. The production will be screened live in cinemas across the UK and elsewhere on 10 December.For more information: www.roh.org.uk
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