Organization

Singer

Baritone

Dimitri Platanias

Tonio

Tenor

Egor Zhuravskii

Peppe

Mattia Olivieri

Silvio

Stage director

Damiano Michieletto

Conductor

Antonio Pappano

Lighting designer

Alessandro Carletti

Costume designer

Carla Teti

Set designer

Paulo Fantin

Alfio

Mezzo-soprano

Aigul Akhmetshina

Lola

Contralto

Elena Zilio

Lucia

Soprano

Aleksandra Kurzak

Santuzza

Nedda

Roberto Alagna

Canio

Opera Australia

La Monnaie/De Munt

SeokJong Baek

Turiddu

GöteborgsOperan

Royal Opera House

Orchestra

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

Others

Chorus of the Royal Opera House

Italian

Cavalleria rusticana -  (Rustic Chivalry)

London

United Kingdom

Main Stage

Damiano Michieletto's production was an Olivier-Award-winning hit when first presented in 2015. He sets both operas within the same village, allowing characters from one piece to reappear in the other and offering theatrical realism within visuals that are modern and yet timeless. The production was widely praised at its premiere - 'a gripping evening all round' (Financial Times).

Cavalleria rusticana Mascagni (+1 More)

Public

Rustic Chivalry

Pagliacci

English

Approved

Damiano Michieletto’s Olivier Award-winning production of Mascagni and Leoncavallo’s one-act operas is a thrilling, cinematic experience. Find out more https...

World-class sopranos Eva-Maria Westbroek and Carmen Giannattasio speak to Kasper Holten about taking the lead roles in The Royal Opera's new production of Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci, at an Insight event with ROH Learning and Participation. Find out more at http://www.roh.org.uk/cavandpag

Pietro Mascagni adapted Giovanni Verga’s play Cavalleria rusticana (Rustic Chivalry) for a competition held by the music publisher Edoardo Sonzogno. His opera, a verismo masterpiece, won the competition and became a tremendous success on its premiere in May 1890. Cavalleria rusticana was an undoubted influence on Ruggero Leoncavallo when he too wrote a short opera for Sonzogno, this time based on a true story. His Pagliacci, first performed in May 1892, was another huge success. The two works, sharing dramatic concision, melodic richness and an obsession with violent jealousy, were soon paired and have since become almost inseparable.

Both Mascagni and Leoncavallo were members of the giovane scuola (young school). They, like many of their contemporaries, were interested in the verismo movement that was in vogue in Italian theatre, which sought to reproduce on stage the realities of rustic Italian life. Both Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci are prime examples of verismo opera, each containing music that gives a strong sense of their setting in a southern-Italian poverty-stricken village and the characters within it. Both are rich with melodies that have been championed by the greatest singers of the 20th century: Turiddu’s brindisi ‘Viva il vino spumeggiante’ and Santuzza’s melancholic ‘Voi lo sapete, o mama’ from Cavalleria rusticana; Tonio’s ‘Un nido di memorie’ and Canio’s ‘Vesti la giubba’ from Pagliacci. Italian director Damiano Michieletto updates the works to southern Italy in the late 20th century, to a village in the grip of poverty and hypocrisy, where strong passions lurk in the dark.

Eva-Maria Westbroek and Carmen Giannattasio on Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci (The Royal Opera)

Damiano Michieletto’s Olivier Award-winning double production draws these opera classics together in a thrillingly observed re-creation of life in a southern Italian village. Emotions erupt as a travelling theatre visits, leading to shocking events brought about by secret love and uncontrollable jealousy.

Antonio Pappano conducts a star cast led by Jonas Kaufmann, in the dual roles of Turridu and Canio, alongside Royal Opera favourites Ermonela Jaho (Nedda), Anita Rachvelishvili (Santuzza) and Dimitri Platanias (Alfio/Tonio). With intense drama and passionate, instantly recognisable melodies, ‘Cav and Pag’ distils into one wonderful evening out the enduring appeal of Italian opera in its most familiar form.

Rustic Chivalry by Mascagni, Pagliacci by Leoncavallo, From (2022/2022), Directed by Damiano Michieletto,, Conductor Antonio Pappano, Royal Opera House, London, United Kingdom

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

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