Dutch National Opera
‘Cavalleria Rusticana’ (Cav) and ‘Pagliacci’ (Pag) are often referred to as opera’s Siamese twins, but if you have ever encountered them together, be it on stage, on DVD or on CD, it has always been Cav that has come first. Why? There’s no rule about it, so why should it?
Director Robert Carsen reverses the order in this production for the Dutch National Opera, but it isn’t a mere whim. It is a key part of his vision for this pairing of works because one flows from the other. Carsen’s overreaching theme is taken from Tonio’s prologue that opens ‘Pagliacci’: the boundary between fictional emotions as portrayed on stage and the real emotions of the actors/singers themselves. Who is who, participants in the drama or audience? In an extraordinary coup de theatre at the opening of ‘Pagliacci’ the soberly-dressed patrons in the first three rows of the stalls rise to a disturbance and transform themselves into the chorus. And at the end of ‘Cavalleria Rusticana’, they disperse, revealing a huge mirror in which the audience themselves are reflected as witnesses of the tragedies. Sung in Italian with English subtitles
176m inc Interval
