The OperaWednesday series returned with the highlights of two popular verismo operas on 5 May 2021. The most beautiful excerpts from the operas by Pietro Mascagni and Ruggero Leoncavallo were streamed from 8:00 p.m. on Facebook and Origo.hu.
Those who have seen Mascagni’s famous one-act Cavalleria rusticana, one of the chief examples of verismo where protagonists are everyday people who fall victim to their own, unbridled passions, will never forget the Easter Hymn. The central figure of this story, set in a Sicilian village on Easter Sunday, is Santuzza (meaning "little saint" in Italian), who is left by her lover for a married woman.
Seeing the resounding success of Cavalleria rusticana, Leoncavallo determined to try and write some verismo himself. Pagliacci became a "theatre within a theatre" story with a magnificent composition. The piece takes place on the Feast of the Assumption, and its protagonist is a clown in a trouppe who finds out his wife is unfaithful until a commedia dell’arte performance that eerily resembles their own situation ends in tragedy.
Soloists of the concert performance:
Cavalleria rusticana: Boldizsár László (Turiddu), Erika Gál (Santuzza), Veronika Dobi- Kiss (Lucia), Zoltán Kelemen (Alfio) and Zsófia Kálnay (Lola)
Pagliacci: Attila Fekete (Canio), Gabriella Létay Kiss (Nedda), Zoltán Kelemen (Tonio), Tibor Szappanos (Peppe), Zoltán Nagy (Silvio), György Mann and Antal Bakó (Two villagers)
Staged by Mária Harangi (Cavalleria rusticana) and András Aczél (Pagliacci), featuring on the piano: Klára Jean, conductors: Gergely Kesselyák (Cavalleria rusticana) and Balázs Kocsár (Pagliacci), narrator: Dániel Mona.
The highlights can be viewed by clicking on the titles below:
Photo by Péter Rákossy