Against daunting odds, Mid Wales Opera has pulled off something of a miracle by staging Leoncavallo’s heartrending short opera Pagliacci on its SmallStages tour. The production, though minimalist in sets and with the orchestra pared down to a chamber ensemble, packs an emotive punch, playing up the turbulent personal lives and passions lurking beneath the clowns’ sinister greasepaint.
Actors’ Turmoil Takes Center Stage
Director Richard Studer’s concept hones in on the story’s crux: the jealousy and rage that erupt when lead actress Nedda is caught between the affections of her husband, Canio, her lover, Silvio, and the sinister clown Tonio. With little more than a central platform and metal frame decorated with lights, Studer puts the focus squarely on the actors and their emotional maelstrom.
As Tonio makes clear in his prologue, this is not play-acting, it’s real life, and the crux of the tale is the sexual jealousy leading to the crime passionel.
Soprano Elin Pritchard delivers a standout performance as Nedda, her voice colored with both sassiness and vulnerability as her character’s dilemma unfolds. The staging and costumes play homage to the opera’s commedia dell’arte roots, with characters drawn from the tradition’s stock players like Pierrot and Columbine. The clowns’ monochrome makeup, featuring a single black diamond, reads as both playful and sinister.
Chamber Ensemble Heightens Drama
Though Leoncavallo’s full, lush score has been reduced to just five instruments – violin, cello, clarinet, harp and keyboard – under Jonathan Lyness’s baton the music loses none of its rich emotional texture. Especially striking is tenor Robin Lyn Evans as the tortured Canio, his voice ringing out with passion and despair as his character’s world crumbles.
The full verismo experience might seem improbable when Leoncavallo’s score is reduced to chamber forces, but Jonathan Lyness’s arrangement for quintet … is clever, and the pacing of the drama tightly controlled.
Philip Smith as the villainous Tonio and Johnny Herford as Nedda’s lover Silvio lend strong support, as does Sam Marston’s Beppe. Together the cast paints an intense dramatic tableau whose tension is only heightened by the intimate scale.
A Cabaret Surprise Finale
In a twist on Mid Wales Opera’s tradition of a musical medley to round out the evening, here audiences are treated to a stylish vaudeville cabaret as the singers take their final bows still in costume. Highlights included a Korngold aria from Herford and Pritchard’s wistful “Send in the Clowns”, capped off by an exuberant chorus of “Razzle Dazzle” from Chicago.
With its funding recently slashed, Mid Wales Opera’s very existence is under threat. But as this gripping, inventive production proves, even in the face of austerity the company continues to deliver top-notch artistry that connects with audiences. One can only hope it receives the support it needs to carry on bringing opera to stages big and small across Wales and beyond.
