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PIETRO MASCAGNI'S CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA and Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, written a mere two years apart, are paradigmatic of the verismo style. The popular tradition of playing these two works as a double bill took hold in 1893, when the Metropolitan Opera presented Cav and Pag in a single evening. In September, New Camerata Opera took innovation one step higher by presenting four performances of Cav + Pag, an innovative adaptation of the two operas into one complete ninety-minute work. The performances occurred in The Muse, a former warehouse in Bushwick, Brooklyn, now repurposed as a performance space (seen Sept. 25). Stage director John de los Santos convincingly interspersed scenes from the two operas into a combined drama. The crosspollination of works was deep: the artistic team also occasionally swapped lines and music from one opera to another. The work was remarkably successful, creating something new from something old, and demonstrated how seamlessly these operas fit together stylistically and musically.
The creative team set Cav + Pag in the Poggioreale, Sicily, just after the Belice Earthquake of 1968 that demolished the town. All of the characters are either townspeople or members of an itinerant commedia dell'arte troupe passing through. The cast was absolutely splendid. As Santuzza, Indira Mahajan commanded the stage in a riveting performance: Santuzza's grief and despair were so palpable that Mahajan brought tears to one's eyes. Chris Carr gave an equally powerful, dramatic performance as Canio, managing to make sympathetic a character many find hard to like. Cav + Pag could and should be performed in many, many venues large and small. And the better one knows the original works, the more fun this adaptation is to experience.
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