Seattle Opera offers a Family Matinee for the Sunday, January 20 performance of Leoncavallo’s classic Pagliacci. Student tickets are available for $15 per student under the age of 18.
Pagliacci (Clowns) is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe. Pagliacci premiered at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan on May 21, 1892, conducted by Arturo Toscanini with Adelina Stehle as Nedda, Fiorello Giraud as Canio, Victor Maurel as Tonio, and Mario Ancona as Silvio.
Since 1893, it has usually been performed in a double bill with Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana. It is the only one of Leoncavallo's operas which has remained in the standard operatic repertory. Its name is sometimes incorrectly rendered as I Pagliacci (The Clowns).
Seattle Opera has just unveiled its plans for the 2008-09 season, which will mark general director Speight Jenkins's 25th year with the company. The company is raising the stakes for the next season, an encouraging sign after the cautious present season.
The season opens with an especially action-packed August, including Verdi's Aida (characterized by Jenkins in a press release as "the grandest of all grand operas"), a recital by tenor Ben Heppner, and a return of the International Wagner Competition. The Aida production—not given in Seattle since 1992--will use sets from San Diego Opera and costumes from Dallas Opera.
At the Family Matinee, special events for kids include complimentary temporary tattoos, clown noses, and clown face painting. Members of the cast will be available in the Hall for photographs with the kids.
Immediately after the performance, student ticket holders are invited to the Spafford Lobby for a complimentary sample slice from Pagliacci Pizza. The KING FM Instrument Petting Zoo will be set up in the Promenade to allow kids to explore a world of instruments, from clarinets to xylophones.
Leoncavallo’s opera, which according to the composer was based on an actual court case, chronicles a single day in the lives of a group of traveling performers—a day that reveals the real pain and tragedy hidden by the painted faces.
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