Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci at the Royal Opera House review
Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. Name a more dramatic duo… I’ll wait. Opera’s favourite double act returns to the Royal Opera House in the form of Damiano Michieletto’s Olivier Award winning production, with all its ‘slice of life’ tragedy intact.
Cleverly intertwining the double bill, Michieletto’s ‘Cav and Pag’, revived here by Noa Naamat, are set in the same charmingly scruffy, but clearly cursed Italian village. Think Broadchurch but Sicilian. The set, designed by Paolo Fantin, screams mid-century quaint, and is impressive in its combination of mundane detail and the unmistakable whiff of lingering violence.
Kicking off with Pietro Mascagni’s Cav, Italian dusk warms the stage and illuminates Turiddu’s bloodied body. Beginning at the end secures the trajectory of tragedy, as the drama reveals Turiddu (SeokJong Baek) to have wooed the naïve Santuzza (Aleksandra Kurzak) after his ex-fiancée Lola (Aigul Akhmetshina) ran off with another bloke.
Within about ten minutes you’re hooked. Baek’s voice is full of heat, and is the perfect companion to Akhmetshina’s sultry Lola, whose mezzo notes ooze sexual certainty. Kurzak is more captivating as the heartstrong Nedda than the mousy Santuzza, but she nails the singing in both, complete with gut wrenching vocal lamentations and a bitter Easter curse.
Michieletto’s Pagliacci actually begins in Cavalleria Rusticana’s Intermezzo. Bright eyed baker Silvio (Mattia Olivieri) kisses Nedda to begin their affair and seal their fates. Roberto Alagna’s Canio, Nedda’s protective husband, is full of brash confidence, only adding to his mad descent as ‘the clown’.
Like the stoic mother she is, Mama Lucia holds the production together and returns in Pagliacci for a touching scene with Santuzza. Elena Zilio’s mezzo voice is still bold and bright, convincing as a spritely and warm-hearted Nonna to be.
Conductor Antonio Pappano is in his element amongst the swells of Italian verismo, and the Leoncavallo is handled particularly well. The Royal Opera House chorus is on top form, with chills heading straight to the spine in the alarming last moments of Pagliacci. Whilst the acting occasionally took a hit, punches aren’t pulled on the singing, and this cast is worth the splurge.
Although Covid scuppered the original intentions for the cast, it was imperceptible on the night; the chemistry is spot on. So, if you’re tiring of imminent governmental collapse, take a leaf out of Theresa May’s book and take a trip to the ROH? It will sort you right out.