Even Though Your Heart Is Breaking

Glimmerglass Festival 2024 Dept.: The fourth and final opera of my Glimmerglass season was that perennial, “Pagliacci.” Often paired with “Cavalleria rusticana,” another verismo one-act opera, it was here given a delightfully different performance context, as described below.

                                                                                      

COMEDY AND DEATH GO HAND-IN-HAND. When you fail onstage, you complain that you “died.” And comedy loosens audience emotions, making us more susceptible to the effects of tragedy. I offer the finale of Chaplin’s “City Lights” as proof.

Robert Stahley as Canio.
Photo by Brent DeLanoy/The Glimmerglass Festival

Ruggero Leoncavallo’s 1892 opera “Pagliacci” is the mother ship from which many a “laugh, clown, laugh” story emerged (including Lon Chaney’s 1928 movie “Laugh, Clown, Laugh”). The aria that ends Act One, “Vesti la giubba,” has been a favorite since the dawn of recordings, with artists as diverse as Enrico Caruso, Freddie Mercury, and Spike Jones waxing distinctive versions.

This summer’s Glimmerglass approach deconstructs the piece. First, with the festivities that precede the opera proper. Weather permitting, there’s a performance on lawn. It’s a loose-limbed commedia dell’arte show, reminding us what the onstage “Pagliacci” audience had assembled to see. And would have seen, had jealous passion not intervened. Next, with an eerie approach to the opera’s Prologue, in which Tonio (Troy Cook) wanders through a gloomy warehouse, uncovering the props and set he remembers from an ill-fated performance.

He recalls people, too, grey shades who grow more distinct as the music progresses, bringing us to the text that he sings. The remembrance aspect is echoed here, as Tonio acknowledges the “ancient comedy” and “old stage customs” that inform the performance. Cook brings a determined intensity to the role, an amazing contrast to the doddery effervescence of his Major-General in “Pirates of Penzance.”  But versatility is a byword to these singers.

Troy Cook as Tonio.
Photo by Brent DeLanoy/
The Glimmerglass Festival

The lights are up; the villagers whoop onto the stage (through the house, in fact), until it’s crowded with townspeople of all ages, eager to see the show. And their favorite is the clown, Canio (Robert Stahley), whose good-natured banter hides his jealous nature. That’s because other men have eyes for Nedda, his wife, and Amber Monroe plays the rather thankless role with the kind of good nature that easily fools men into seeing accessibility.

Trouble is, she’s having an affair with Sylvio (Jonathan Patton), here dressed in reasonable finery that suggests he would be a reasonable alternative to her abusive spouse. And so she promises – except that Tonio, himself spurned by her, catches wind of this plan and prepares to rat her out.

Those are the building blocks of a plot that will play out alongside the expected commedia dell’arte performance, which takes on extra depth if you’ve come early enough to see the lawn performance. That’s where a group from the company’s Young Artists program become the traditional knockabout characters in a show heavy with groan-worthy puns and lightened with songs as disparate as the “Jewel Song” from “Faust,” “Tarantella Napoletana,” and “Some Enchanted Evening.” And, because these Young Artists are indefatigable, they hurry over to the mainstage theater to play the same roles in “Pagliacci.”

Amber Monroe as Nedda and Jonathan Patton as
Silvio. Photo by Sofia Negron/The Glimmerglass Festival

But the drama of the piece pushes the commedia more to the background – except, of course, when Canio delivers his famous aria, “Vesti la giubba.” No matter how many times you’ve heard it, in however many guises, it packs a sock to the gut when rendered as brilliantly as Stahley gave it. Yes, he’s going to laugh through his tears, but, man, those tears affect us.

Nedda has an even tougher job, I think, because she has to convince us of some fundamental goodness even as she gets mired in this misbegotten love affair. She dreams, not surprisingly, of escape, and Monroe sings her aria “Stridono lassù” with beautiful credibility. She will take wing, we hope, and her endearing scene with Sylvio wins our support.

All hell breaks loose by the end of the second act. Tension builds throughout, and director Brenna Corner does an admirable job of putting the chorus in service of guiding our focus, not an easy task when there are 55 people on stage, and credit also goes to choreographer Eric Sean Fogel. The costumes, by Erik Teague, have an antique timelessness about them, an effect heightened by Robert Wierzel’s lighting.

Robert Stahley as Canio. Photo by
Sofia Negron/The Glimmerglass Festival

The fatal gesture is committed by gunshot instead of knife, giving a resounding cue for the lights to glow red, also giving an effective transition back to Tonio’s “present,” in whatever limbo that may be, and returns to him the famous final line, often swiped by Canio.

Leoncavallo’s lush score is amply nourished by Joseph Colaneri’s conducting. I’d like to say that he’s very much at home in a piece like this, but Colaneri seems very much at home in everything I’ve seen him conduct.

So here’s your strategy: Get your tickets for a day that promises good weather. Arrive two hours before curtain time. This gives you time to get a seat on the lawn. Bring a picnic – there are some tables up for grabs. Ninety minutes before curtain, enjoy a casual talk about “Pagliacci,” diving into its fascinating music. Our talk was given by Laura Bleakley, a returning Young Artist working as a pianist this summer.

Sixty minutes before curtain, the comedy begins. You’ll have plenty of time to get to the Alice Busch Opera Theater and settle in for 105 minutes of “Pagliacci.” And then, of course, the comedy is ended. Performances continue through August 18.

Pagliacci
Music & libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo
Joseph Colaneri, conductor
Brenna Corner, director
The Glimmerglass Festival, July 29, 2024