Real life on stage

At the end of yesterday’s post I didn’t write about the operas on the free Metropolitan Opera streaming service. Yes, two of them. I left them out because I saved the second one for this afternoon.

There were two operas because both are short – about 75 to 90 minutes each. Because of that they are frequently offered together.

The two operas are similar. Both deal with tragic consequences to infidelity. And though by different composers, they were part of a revolution in opera called *verismo*. This was a shift to stories about regular people rather than gods and dukes.

The first was Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni. The title translates as “Rustic Chivalry.” The Intermezzo, an orchestral interlude, has become famous beyond the opera. I didn’t completely follow the plot. It’s something about Turiddu, the tenor, who has seduced Santuzza, the soprano. She feels disgraced. Turiddu is now moving on to Lola, wife of Alfio. There’s a lot of singing about who is in love with who and whose ardor has faded. Alfio challenges Turiddu to a duel, which happens offstage, though there are cries that Turiddu didn’t survive.

The action takes place in Sicily. All the characters were dressed in a dark gray, reminding me of a conservative religious culture.

The second opera was Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo, his only opera still performed. The title translates as “Clowns” and is about a traveling troupe of Commedia dell’arte clowns, which uses stock characters and physical comedy to tell its stories.

There is a prologue, in which we are told to not think of the people on stage as characters, but as real people who think and feel as we do. The troupe arrives in town (the same Sicily, 50 years later) and they say there will be a show at sunset. Canio, the tenor, is married to Nedda, the soprano (an us baritones are annoyed that the tenor always gets the girl). He is deeply in love with her, but the reverse isn’t true.

There is Tonio, the baritone of the troupe. When Canio goes off to drink, Tonio tries to seduce Nedda. She drives him off. Silvio arrives. He’s Nedda’s lover, though not of the troupe. He wants her to leave with him after that night’s performance. Tonio catches their hot embrace and gets Canio to see it too. Canio threatens Nedda. Then we get Canio’s famous big aria (so famous that Spike Jones did a parody) as he begins to put on his makeup. How can he make other people laugh while he’s filled with rage and crying inside?

In the second act the clown troupe plays out the same love complications as we saw in the first act. The whole thing gets turned in on itself. Tonio’s clown longs for Nedda’s clown. Another clown, representing Silvio, also pursues Nedda. Then Canio’s clown appears when he should, but soon goes off script, accusing Nedda of infidelity. The audience praises the actors for the realism of their acting. Nedda tries to ad lib a few lines, then Canio attacks her. That’s when the audience sees this wasn’t acting.