Pagliacci

About the show

A commedia dell’arte troupe arrives in a Calabrian village. Canio, who plays Pagliaccio, warns the villagers that he will not tolerate anyone courting his wife Nedda. Nedda’s lover Silvio asks her to elope, but Canio catches them and cannot identify the man. During the performance, Nedda repeats the words she had said to Silvio. Canio abandons the play and demands her lover’s name. When she refuses, he stabs her; Silvio rushes to the stage and is also killed. Canio—or Tonio, in the original manuscript—announces that the comedy is finished.