Opera Hong Kong double bill explores raw emotions in ordinary lives
Opera Hong Kong presents a double bill of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci from October 8 to 11 at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. The one-act operas focus on ordinary people and recognisable emotions such as jealousy, pride and shame, with Italian conductor Roberto Gianola
Opera Hong Kong is presenting a double bill of two emotionally charged Italian one-act operas, Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Grand Theatre from October 8 to 11, according to Bernard Charnwut Chan, chairman of the West Kowloon Cultural District.
Writing in The Standard, Chan said the pairing feels natural as both works place ordinary lives and raw feeling at their centre. Unlike grand operas featuring gods or kings, these tragedies grow out of recognisable human behaviour, including jealousy, pride, desire and shame.
In Cavalleria Rusticana, a love affair in a Sicilian village becomes entangled with wounded honour and public expectation. Pagliacci follows members of a travelling theatre company who discover that the distance between performance and private life has become dangerously small. Chan wrote that the music by Mascagni and Leoncavallo conveys intense feeling that can begin with a glance, an overheard remark or the knowledge that trust has been broken.
Italian conductor Roberto Gianola leads the production, with Enrico Castiglione directing and designing the sets and costumes. The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra performs alongside the Opera Hong Kong Chorus and Children Chorus, while alternating international casts bring the principal roles to life.
Chan noted that the double bill is an apt choice for Opera Hong Kong, which has done much to make opera a familiar presence in the city's cultural life. He added that the two works remind audiences of opera's ability to make them share an emotional journey, with the force of a voice, the colour of an orchestra and the tension on stage communicating directly even when the language is unfamiliar.