Tonight and tomorrow, weather permitting, there will be free outdoor performances of Pagliacci (Clowns), the celebrated Italian one-act opera featuring love, jealousy and death among a troupe of down-at-heel theatrical comedians.
Sad clowns are so traditional, it's almost impossible to think of a genuinely happy one. Shakespeare's Feste and Touchstone, plus the Fool in King Lear, are all professional melancholics, as are the cinema's classic manifestations, Woody Allen, Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton. The essential circus clown is a big man with a sad smile and a strong sense that his jokes are more bitter than they seem.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, composed in 1892, takes this tradition to its logical conclusion. It concerns a troupe of traveling actors, and in its famous central aria, Vesti la Jiuba, the tenor sings that though he has to put on his make-up for the show, his heart is broken. His wife is planning to run away with her lover and yet he has to go on stage and play the funny man.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Pagliacci, which only lasts 70 minutes, plays in Zhongshan Square (Ximen MRT), starting at 7.30pm. It's a production of the Taipei Symphony Orchestra (TSO), plus imported guests.
The TSO, still without a permanent maestro, has invited the young Norwegian conductor Arild Remmereit to take charge of proceedings, and the equally youthful Italian tenor Rosario La Spina will also be in Taipei to sing the lead role. The set will be essentially the same as the one created for Cavalleria Rusticana this time two years ago, but this is not inappropriate. The two operas are often performed together, and many companies round the world must use a single set for both of them. The plots, too, have a lot in common.
Canio, a middle-aged actor, is married to Nedda, but she has fallen in love with a local villager, Silvio. She's also attracted the attentions of another member of the company, the gross Tonio. After she repels Tonio's clumsy advances with a knife, he decides to take his revenge. When he sees Nedda kissing Silvio while Canio is out drinking, he brings Canio to observe the scene, thus setting off the plot's bloody denouement.
Canio sings his heart-broken aria, ending in sobs, and then, after a brief orchestral interlude, the play-within-the-play begins. In it, Canio has, in essence, to play himself. His stage wife is entertaining a stage lover while he's away, and when he returns unexpectedly he's meant to play the old fool successfully tricked by the young couple. But the parallel with his real situation is too much for Canio. As the music mixes comedy with mounting tragedy, he draws a knife and kills Nedda for real, then her lover Silvio, as he comes forward from the audience to help her.
The opera offers three fine singing roles and one attractive cameo. Canio (Rosario La Spina) has the big aria, and dominates the ending. Tonio (Wu Bai Yu Hsi, 巫白玉璽) has a better part than might be expected, largely on account of his appearance right at the start to introduce the show, with remarks about life and art being inextricably mixed -- an observation that proves only too true as events unfold. Wu, incidentally, was an outstanding Don Giovanni in Taipei earlier in the year. Nedda (Lu Chong-rong, 盧瓊蓉 ) is a major role, together with being the only female soloist and with three men to deal with. Silvio (Hsu Te-tsung, 許德崇) has one important scene -- his love duet with Nedda.
The atmosphere depicted in the opera is likely to be closely reproduced in Taipei tonight and tomorrow. A free show where people can sit on stools, applaud or not as they think fit, and generally get close to the performers, is very much in the spirit of the story being told.
Moreover, this is only the latest in a succession of popular outdoor operas mounted by the TSO in recent years. First was a Rigoletto in Daan Park, followed by Madama Butterfly and Cavalleria Rusticana in Zhongshan Square. All were major successes that played to capacity crowds. Butterfly even played twice in a field in Nantou County, to a total of 30,000 people, who on one evening remained even during a downpour.
All outdoor productions bring with them both acoustic and visual problems. To overcome the former, the singers will wear radio microphones and their voices will be amplified. The orchestra will play inside the Zhongshan Hall and their sound will be amplified as well, with the singers following the conductor via TV monitors.
Franco Zeffirelli filmed both Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci in the early 1980s with Placido Domingo in the leading roles. His Pagliacci, with Teresa Stratas a haunting Nedda and Juan Pons a shabby-genteel Tonio, is available on DVD from Philips (DVDC 1009 075 086-2).
"So think then not of our poor theatrical costumes but of our souls," sings Tonio in his prologue. "For we are men of flesh and blood, breathing the air of this lonely world, just like you."
Pagliacci is one of the breed of operas that were pioneered at the end of the 19th century featuring working-class people -- laborers on canal barges, impoverished students, escaped political prisoners -- rather than the more traditional figures from mythology or historical novels. Its associated style was highly realistic -- in Zeffirelli's film, a dusty wind blows debris across the stage, the actors eat an improvised meal wearing their grease paint and Nedda sings of her longing for freedom while sponging down a small child standing in a tin basin.
Pagliacci contains some time-honored literary themes. Where does the border come between illusion and reality, between the actor and the man, between domestic responsibility and a longing for freedom? Not that it's necessary to think of these during a performance -- the music appeals directly to the emotions. Given five powerful singers and an enthusiastic audience, the ancient magic of theater will be on display once again. This should be a popular opportunity for an outing with the added convenience that it's all over by 9pm.
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