About Pagliacci

Program

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(conductor Ari Bocian would like to dedicate this production to the loving memory of his cousin, Hanna Ray Weiss)

Though we tend to think about Leoncavallo’s magnificent verismo opera as it’s famous aria, ‘Vesti la Giubba’, in which the grieving clown, unable to contain the weight of his jealous rage, cannot bear to go onstage as the persona he has so artfully created – but MUST – Pagliacci folds many layers of ‘story’  inside its ‘clowning’ covers. There is, for example, the illicit, heartrending love of Nedda and Silvio – the handsome, successful man from town, as well as the commedia dell’arte play that provides the traveling circus troupe with its living. It is there, of course, during its expected nightly performance, that Canio’s horrifying  breakdown begins – he crashes out, breaking the conventional 4th wall, to pursue his own terrible personal agenda….

To this play within an opera play, I have added another layer or two…

I have centered the play inside an actual performing aerial and burlesque (circus) troupe by collaborating with another resident company at  Little Boxes Theater: Smoke and Mirrors Menagerie!!!!
This was inspired by watching so many extraordinary, diverse and unusual aerialists, lyra, hoops and silks performers and performances at Little Boxes Theater where Teatro Mistral is currently in residence.
You may say these art forms are from the traditions of circus, but, like the demanding vocalism on display in this opera, they are, nonetheless, true art forms, requiring a firm, comprehensive grasp of technique and demanding focus, practice, dedication and passion to do it well. And what better place to stage an opera about circus troupe performers than inside an actual circus?

There is one more divergent layer here from the traditional performances of Pagliacci, and that is, I have turned this story sharply toward Nedda, bringing her back as a ghostly voice to witness her own life from beyond, so that you, the audience, can experience it a little more through her eyes, through her spirit, through what happened to her, how she lived and, ultimately the price she was willing to pay for remaining true to herself.  ‘I am many things’, she says, in her final fight with Canio, ‘but I am no coward and will never betray my love’!!!

Welcome to the Circus!!!!

Vismaya Lhi – Artistic Director/Teatro Mistral

 

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Cast

Senen Bagos, Jr.  – Canio
Hanna Socorro – Nedda (oct. 29, nov. 5)
Vismaya Lhi – Nedda (oct. 30, nov. 6)
Tristan Robben – Tonio
Rodrigo Castillo – Silvio
Sidney Ragland – Peppe (oct. 29, 30, nov. 5)
Ethan Williams – Peppe (nov. 6)

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Teatro Mistral Ensemble

Ellen Yeung – soprano
Emily J. Crawford – soprano
Sidney Ragland – tenor
Ethan Williams – tenor
Jeff Jones – bass

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Smoke and Mirrors Menagerie

Joanna Animal
Dorian Dietrich
Cha Cha Hoops
Myles Higher

Musical and Technical Staff

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Conductor: Ari Bocian
leading the Teatro Mistral chamber orchestra
Kyle Beard (clarinet)
Elissa Brown (flute)
Anju Goto (violin)
Max Hollander(oboe)
Mark Nemoyten (trumpet)
Federico Strand Ramirez (cello)
Matt Volkar (bassoon)
Jason Rey Whitney (horn)
Daphne Wong (viola)
Joanne Wu (violin)