Pagliacci

Passion and jealousy

Life is one great theatre; and theatre is a reflection of real life. This might just be the perfect opera to catch you in its web and to make even the greatest sceptic fall in love with it.

An opera in which fiction and reality intermingle and where nothing is as it might appear. Love, indifference, jealousy, hate and death can all be found in this opera, just as they are in real life.

On this occasion, we’ll spend two days with members of the RALUY Circus and will find out more about their complicated yet fascinating world. We’ll talk to some of them about jealousy and love: the main topics in this opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo.

Pagliacci belongs to an artistic movement known as verism, which aims to reflect reality or the truth. Leoncavallo was not a famous composer, so he did not find it easy to put on his opera. However, with the help of a famous French baritone (for whom he wrote the well-known prologue), he finally managed it. Once it was performed, Pagliacci immediately became a huge success.

But not everything in this episode is drama and tragedy: laughter can be a great release valve and we need it to face adversity in life. We visit the PallaPupas, a group of clowns who help hospitalised children get over some of their pain through humour. We’ll see them in action and discover a little about their unique and fun type of therapy.

Everything in Pagliacci takes on its own meaning. However, Leoncavallo’s main message is, despite everything and no matter how hard life might get, the show must go on.

Excerpts

"PAGLIACCI" A film by Franco Zeffirelli UNITEL 1982

GUEST APPEARANCES
Rafel Santandreu
Angie Rosales
PallaPupas