More than 60% of women murdered in this country die at the hands of a current or former partner, and one in four women in the UK will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime. Stark figures that audience members should remember if they are tempted to shrink from Opera Holland Park’s visceral portrayal of male rage in its new production of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci.
Brutal Canio leads a broken-down theatre troupe in struggling postwar southern Italy. While outwardly the jovial clown, he can switch in a second into a violent, controlling brute. He suspects correctly that his wife, Nedda, is having an affair and wants to leave him, something his wild jealousy will not allow. Their desperate situation spills over into the pathetic little comedy that they perform, where fiction and reality collide, leading to a shockingly violent conclusion.
