Ruggiero Leoncavallo’s
Pagliacci
with Igor Stravinsky’s
Pulcinella Suite
in collaboration with Ballet Idaho

The Egyptian Theatre
700 W Main Street
Boise, ID 83702

Friday, March 1, 2013 • 7:30pm
Sunday, March 3, 2013 • 2:30pm

to purchase tickets to Pagliacci.

Free previews for all ticket holders, led by Executive Director Mark Junkert, will precede all performances of this opera one hour before curtain; these previews will be given at The Egyptian Theatre. No registration is required.

Performance Overview
Synopsis
Cast Bios and Photos

Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci is a dark tragedy, depicting the story of a commedia dell’arte troupe member who discovers his wife is cheating on him with another man. The one-act opera will be preceded by Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite danced by Ballet Idaho in a unique combination of two wonderful works never before paired together. The opera stars Christopher Bengochea as Canio and Emily Newton as Nedda. Timm Roleck will return to Boise to conduct. One week before the production, February 22 and 23, Bengochea and Newton will perform in Boise Philharmonic’s Bethoveen Symphony #9 Concert.

Pulcinella Suite

Nedda, Canio, Tonio, Beppe and the rest of the “company” (2-6 actor/dancers) have arrived in Calabria in the middle of the night. To the music of Pulcinella, they set up camp and unpack the wagon. Canio and Tonio quickly exit to retire, leaving Beppe, Nedda, and the others to their work. Work becomes play as the company and Nedda and Beppe unpack in a commedia dell’arte style. Beppe and Nedda play with each other singing the Pulcinella songs for tenor and soprano. All dance the stylized Gavotte from Pulcinella, which quickly changes into becomes the raucous Finale. All collapse in laughter and exhaustion as the music from Pulcinella reaches its fast climax. The music segues to the Pulcinella prelude.

The ballet unfolds in one single act and features Pulcinella, his girlfriend Pimpinella, his friend Furbo, Prudenza and Rosetta, and Florindo and Cloviello. The story starts with Florindo and Cloviello serenading Prudenza and Rosetta. The two women are unimpressed and reply by showering the suitors with water. Prudenza’s father, a doctor, appears and chases them away.

A new episode begins with Rosetta with her father appearing. Rosetta dances for Pulcinella and they kiss. But Pimpinella sees this and interrupts the scene. Florindo and Cloviello arrive and jealous of Pulcinella, they beat him up. Pulcinella is then stabbed, but this is actually a mockery to get Pimpinella to forgive Pulcinella. Furbo disguised as a magician appears and resurrects Pulcinella’s body in front of everybody. Pimpinella indeed forgives Pulcinella, Prudenza and Rosetta succumb to Florindo’s and Cloviello’s wooing. The ballet ends with the marriages of the couples.

courtesy of Wikipedia

Pagliacci

Prologue. Before the opera begins, the clown Tonio steps before the curtain to say that the author has written about actors, who know the same joys and sorrows as other people.

Part I. Southern Italy, around 1865-70. Excited villagers mill about as a small theatrical road company arrives at the outskirts of a Calabrian town. Canio, head of the troupe, describes that night’s offering, and when someone jokingly suggests that the hunchback Tonio is secretly enamoured of his young wife, Canio warns he will tolerate no flirting with Nedda. As vesper bells call the women to church, the men go to the tavern, leaving Nedda alone. Disturbed by her husband’s vehemence and suspicious glances, she envies the freedom of the birds soaring overhead. Tonio appears and indeed tries to make love to her, but she scorns him. Enraged, he grabs her, and she lashes out with a whip, getting rid of him but inspiring an oath of vengeance. Nedda in fact does have a lover — Silvio, who now arrives and persuades her to run away with him at midnight. But Tonio, who has seen them, hurries off to tell Canio. Before long the jealous husband bursts in on the guilty pair. Silvio escapes, and Nedda refuses to identify him, even when threatened with a knife. Beppe, another player, has to restrain Canio, and Tonio advises him to wait until evening to catch Nedda’s lover. Alone, Canio sobs that he must play the clown though his heart is breaking.

Part II. The villagers, Silvio among them, assemble to see the play Pagliaccio e Colombina. In the absence of her husband, Pagliaccio (played by Canio), Colombina (Nedda) is serenaded by her lover Arlecchino (Beppe), who dismisses her buffoonish servant, Taddeo (Tonio). The sweethearts dine together and plot to poison Pagliaccio, who soon arrives; Arlecchino slips out the window. With pointed malice, Taddeo assures Pagliaccio of his wife’s innocence, firing Canio’s real-life jealousy. Forgetting the script, he demands that Nedda reveal her lover’s name. She tries to continue with the play, the audience applauding the realism of the “acting.” Maddened by her defiance, Canio stabs Nedda and then Silvio, who has rushed forward from the crowd to help her. Canio cries out that the comedy is ended.

courtesy of Opera News