Italian neorealism of the 1950s and 60s lurks behind Damiano Michieletto’s 2015 Covent Garden staging of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, now on its third revival, overseen by Noa Naamat and conducted by Daniel Oren. It remains a compelling piece of theatre, subtle in its attention to psychological detail, compassionate, and admirably avoids melodrama in its exploration of emotional extremes.
Michieletto sets both operas in the same poor Italian town and interweaves their characters and narratives. Cavalleria Rusticana centres on the bakery run by Mamma Lucia (Elena Zilio), where Pagliacci’s Silvio (Andrzej Filończyk) also works, and where he first meets Nedda (Anna Princeva) while she’s handing out publicity leaflets for the touring company’s show. Pagliacci, meanwhile, takes place in the local municipal hall-cum-theatre, where we also now find the pregnant Santuzza (Aleksandra Kurzak) moving towards reconciliation with the initially unforgiving Mamma Lucia after the death of Roberto Alagna’s Turiddu.
