-
Description
Pietro Mascagni / Ruggero Leoncavallo:
CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA / PAGLIACCI
opera premiere
27 June 2026, Saturday, 8:00 PM
(rain date: 28 June)
Margaret Island Open-Air Stage
Two one-act operas in a single evening on the stage of the Margaret Island Theatre!
La cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci have often been performed together since their creation, offering audiences a full-length, powerful operatic experience. Although the two works are not directly connected musically or narratively, their thematic parallels make them a perfect pairing. Both take place in rural Italy and revolve around jealousy, love, revenge, and honor — emotions that drive the characters toward inevitable tragedy.
Mascagni composed Cavalleria rusticana for a competition, and it quickly became a sensation.
When Turiddu returns from military service to Sicily, he finds that his beloved has married Alfio. Despite this, they rekindle their relationship, prompting Alfio to challenge Turiddu to a duel — in which Turiddu is killed. The opera premiered in Rome in 1890, and that same year it reached Hungarian audiences as well, conducted at the Royal Hungarian Opera House by the composer Gustav Mahler.
Leoncavallo wrote Pagliacci for the same competition for which Mascagni submitted Cavalleria rusticana. Pagliacci follows the “play within a play” concept, telling the story of a theatrical performance that spirals into real-life tragedy. The title refers to pagliaccio, the comic clown of the commedia dell’arte tradition. At its 1892 world premiere, the opera was conducted by one of history’s greatest maestros, Arturo Toscanini. Both operas share a naturalistic approach, depicting the struggles of real, flesh-and-blood characters through everyday stories.
Featuring:
Zsuzsa Barabás, Boldizsár László, Maria Farkasréti
With the participation of:
The Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra
The Kodály Choir of Debrecen
Conductor:
Zsolt Jankó
