Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci

Royal Opera House | ★★★★✩

Reviewed by Stephen Pollard

​It’s a sign of the times that I need to mention at the outset that both the conductor and the director of this revival of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci are Israeli. Ordinarily, Daniel Oren and Noa Naamat’s nationality would be irrelevant, but in the current climate it’s important to recognise that, away from the vocal anti-Israel mob, normal life continues here.

Not that there is anything run of the mill or normal about these performances. ‘Cav & Pag’ – as the combination of these two one-act operas is universally known – is one of those evenings that is almost always ‘bad-performance-proof’. No matter how drab or uninspiring a production may be – and all too often they are put on precisely because they are such easy crowd pleasers – there is usually at least something engaging, even if it’s just a memory of how involving they should be.

No such worries here, though. This revival of Damiano Michieletto’s 2015 Olivier Award-winning production (revived, as it has been before, by Noa Naamat) is riveting, both dramatically and musically.

These are two separate operas, with no connection other than being leading examples of so-called verismo, the late-19th century movement that involved supposedly realistic settings and the dramas of ordinary people. So Michieletto’s entwining of the two would jar if it was not so skilfully done. But this is operatic theatre at its best, with characters brilliantly well defined, plots played out naturally and emotions explored but never exploited. And treating them as a whole works.

Michieletto’s chosen setting is a bakery run by Mamma Lucia (Elena Zilio) and right from the start of Cavalleria Rusticana we see Pagliacci’s Silvio (Andrzej Filończyk) working there – and it is where he meets Nedda (Anna Princeva). Pagliacci is also set in the same town’s village hall. And at the end of Pagliacci, the now pregnant Santuzza (Aleksandra Kurzak) is reconciled with Mamma Lucia after Turiddu (Roberto Alagna) has been murdered.

Oren is a past master of this repertoire and from the opening prelude of Cavalleria Rusticana it’s obvious he knows exactly what he is doing. He gives the succession of wonderful melodies their head, without over-indulgence, as too many conductors do.

Alagna is now in his fourth decade singing, and although his voice no longer has the ping it once had it is still beautiful, and along with Kurzak and Zilio this is top-notch singing and acting. Zilio’s Mamma Lucia is a compelling presence, and Kurzak is magnetic.

Dimitri Platanias, Alfredo in Cavalleria Rusticana, is also Tonio in Pagliacci, and he sings the opening Prologue with both beauty and anger. And Jorge de León’s Canio is a rounded portrayal of a bullying charmer.

Everything is masterly handled by the revival’s director, and this is one of those rare evenings where everything just works. There is not a trace of routine about this third revival. There are all sorts of Christmas productions on in the West End but you will not do better than this.