When Puccini's Rival Came to Seattle

Pagliacci has been one of the world’s favorite operas since its 1892 premiere. Here at Seattle Opera we’ve given it five times now (1966, 1974, 1983, 2008, and now 2024), sometimes on its own, sometimes as part of a double-bill with operas such as Cavalleria rusticana or Gianni Schicchi. But among the opera “classics” performed repeatedly in Seattle there’s something unique about Pagliacci: this opera’s creator once visited our fair city.

Initially collaborators, Puccini (left) and Leoncavallo (right) became arch-rivals when both made operas about La bohème.

Sasquatch Goes to the Opera

In honor of Seattle Opera’s newest production of Ruggero Leoncavallo’s masterpiece and to celebrate Pagliacci Pizza’s 45th Anniversary, the Seattle-based pizza maker has created a signature pizza box featuring Sasquatch as the clown.

© Pagliacci Pizza

PAGLIACCI and COMMEDIA

Pagliacci climaxes in a show-within-a-show: a performance (which goes completely haywire) of traditional Italian comedy, commedia dell’arte. This ancient theatrical form is perhaps best understood as live-action Looney Tunes. Commedia shows didn’t have much by way of plot. They didn’t use scripts. Instead, stock characters and situations provide a framework for improvised jokes, buffoonery, and rampant silliness. The name commedia dell’arte best translates as “artisanal comedy,” i.e. a bespoke performance, like the kind of cheese sold at a farmer’s market. Yes, they followed a recipe, but it comes out differently each time, that’s half the fun. 

Canio (Diego Torre) and Nedda (Gabriella Reyes) from the 2023 Lyric Opera of Kansas City production of Pagliacci. © Ken Howard

Get to Know Monica and Diego

Monica Conesa, the American Cuban soprano, and Diego Torre, the Mexican Australian tenor are making their Seattle Opera debuts as Nedda and Canio. Discover how they started, their artistic influences, and favorite pastimes.

An inside look at Pagliacci

Antonello Palombi (Canio) and Nuccia Focile (Nedda) in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, 2008 © Rozarii Lynch

Seattle Opera continues its Fall Season with a recital featuring the highlights of Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. Based on a real crime, this verismo opera owes its continuing success in part to the composer’s ability to balance humor, romance, and darkly violent moods.

Pagliacci means “Clowns” or “Players” in Italian—though the ending of this opera is far from amusing. "The lead tenor Canio’s ever famed aria ‘Vesti la giubba’ makes a point of emphasizing the juxtaposition," writes Kelly Maxwell of Opera Colorado. "‘Put on the costume,’ he bemoans, ‘the people pay and want to laugh.’ Late in the aria, to potent high notes, he declaims, ‘Ridi Pagliaccio, sul tuo amore infranto!’: ‘Laugh, clown, though your heart is shattered.’” 

With both words and music by Leoncavallo, Pagliacci premiered in Milan on May 21, 1892, with the conductor Arturo Toscanini on the podium.

Seattle Opera Unveils 2020/21 Season

Photos: © Philip Newton; © Philip Newton; © Faye Fox; © Bree Anne Clowdus; © Philip Newton; © Philip Newton; © Elise Bakketun

Seattle Opera has just unveiled its 2020/21 season—a year that highlights opera’s rich past, and its bold, diverse future. Audiences will be treated to beloved classics Tosca and Don Giovanni, as well as a contemporary work Flight, inspired by the true story of stateless refugee Mehran Karimi Nasseri, who was stranded for 18 years and forced to live in the Charles de Gaulle airport. The romantic comedy The Elixir of Love and the double-bill Cavalleria rusticana & Pagliacci will all be performed for the first time in decades.