Cavalleria rusticana & Pagliacci - schedule, program & buy tickets

Opera double bill: Melodramma in one act / Dramma in one prologue and two acts
Libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci / Libretto by the composer

In Italian with German and English surtitles

These parade operas of verismo take us into the heart of rural life: Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, which premiered in 1890, tells the story of how an everyday love triangle ends fatally. And in Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci (The Bajazzo) from 1892, the comedic play of a traveling theater troupe about Columbina's lovers suddenly turns deadly serious.

Jealousy and murder, the abysses of mankind, depicted in a poor, rural milieu - these are the themes of the composers of verismo, the most prominent representatives of which include Mascagni and Leoncavallo. Few works of musical theater bring the human passions of southern Italy to the stage as fervently as these two. Theater and film director Philipp Stölzl has staged the double bill of the two detective operas as an enigmatic play on several levels.

Subject to change without notice.