Both sets are bathed in the same frail lime green light and a statue of the Virgin Mary looms over both, silently watching the melodrama.Ĭavalleria Rustica’s famous intermezzo, rendered with sultry elegance by conductor Anthony Pappano, is contrasted with a moonlight meet-cute between Pagliacci’s Nedda and Silvio.

But it is more than sly references to each other. Posters for the travelling clowns’ show appear in the former.

Cavalleria Rustica’s Mamma Lucia (a fragile and melancholic Elena Zilo) makes a cameo appearance in Pagliacci. Revived at the Royal Opera House, Cav and Pag (as it is colloquially referred to) promises a night oozing with passion, lust, and Italian flare.Īn uneasy continuity strings the two together. The operas are two sides of the same coin they mirror each other’s themes of infidelity, love, and jealousy, both served in the Italian verismo style garnished with the sweetness of romance and the bitterness of heartbreak. Pietro Mascagni’s 1890 Cavalleria Rustica, and Pietro Mascagni’s 1892 Pagliacci have been performed together as an operatic double bill since 1893.

Royal opera house review