Pagliacci

Leoncavallo's 1892 Pagliacci stormed the critics when it first premiered, with its mirage between truth and lies it is still performed worldwide, Leoncavello's only piece still in circulation in fact. Telling the story of a travelling acting troupe and a dangerous love triangle, Pagliacci takes its audience on a course through deception, passion and murder.

What is Pagliacci about?

Canio leads a successful acting troupe but his wife Nedda is admired by one of his fellow actors, Tonio. After Nedda rejects him, Tonio concocts a cunning plan of deception, alerting Canio to Nedda's affair with a local man named Silvio. Canio uses their next play to demand to know the name of Nedda's lover, as his rage increases it becomes clear that he is no longer acting, leading to a deadly end.