Music by Ruggero Leoncavallo | Giacomo Puccini
Rosemary Thomson, Conductor
Glynis Leyshon, Stage Director

Pagliacci (Clowns) offers a tale of art imitating life, and vice-versa, for a troupe of traveling players. Nedda, her husband Canio, and their fellow actors Beppe and Tonio, arrive at a new town, and they explain the show that they will be performing that night: “the troubles of Pagliacco.” The troupe then joins villagers for a drink before the performance, at which Canio reveals that while he plays the clown on stage, in real life he is quickly enraged about the attention his wife receives from other men. Nedda is frightened by Canio’s dark revelation, but later agrees tentatively to elope with Silvio, who is her secret lover. Canio learns of Nedda’s deception, and later that evening, while in character on stage, he acts out his shame, and rage, demanding to know the name of his wife’s love. Their play ends in violence, both onstage and off, with Canio declaring “La commedia è finita!!” – “The comedy is finished!”

Gianni Schicchi is the scheming title character who plots to gain revenge, riches, and happiness through one extraordinary con. The story begins when the rich Donati family learns that their recently deceased patriarch, Buoso Donati, has left all his wealth to a monastery, much to their dismay. Rinuccio, his nephew, had hoped that his inheritance would enable him to marry his sweetheart, Lauretta, even though she and her father, Gianni Schicchi, are newcomers to Florence and not accepted by the elitist Donati family.

Although initially shunned by the snobby old family, Gianni Schicchi gives in to Rinuccio’s pleas to help the Donati family, and agrees to meddle with the will by impersonating Buoso. And then the hijinks begin!

What to expect in this production
Opera Kelowna’s production brings these two operas together in a setting that imagines a traveling troupe of players has come to Kelowna in the early 1930s, to provide entertainment and cultural connection to the Italian immigrants who now make their home in rural western Canada.

Over the course of one evening, therefore, both this imagined group of newcomers and our audiences in 2024 are taken on a journey to both deep despair and the heights of hilarity through these two works, both of which draw on the traditions of Italian commedia dell’arte theatre. You will see our actors play the roles of traveling actors who then take on both tragic and comic roles in the two acts of the evening.

Sung in Italian, with projected English translations

Performed with live orchestral ensemble