Cavalleria Rusticana & I Pagliacci at Straz Center for the Performing Arts - Carol Morsani Hall

Cavalleria Rusticana is a one act verismo opera based in Sicily. It is a tale of a soldier who returns from war to find that he has lost his fiancée to another man. In his torment, he ruins the reputation of a young woman and then seduces his former fiancée, ultimately ending in a confrontation with the enraged husband.

I Pagliacci is a one-act tragedy of adultery set in the small village whose townspeople are excited about the arrival of a clown troupe. The troupe’s mission is to be comical and entertain the crowds, but the underlying current of jealousy, lust and revenge tear them apart.