Il Tabarro and Pagliacci

On to the third opera of the week!  Well, technically they were the third and fourth operas of the week, but since they were performed in one evening, I'll leave them stuck together.

On Sunday night, in the midst of a huge and sudden summer storm, I went with E and her friend L to see Il Tabarro and Pagliacci.  We began the evening with lovely meals provided by OTSL - I had the veggie tart with potatoes, asparagus, pasta salad provided by L, a delicious chocolate mint truffle, watermelon, prosecco and Perrier to drink, and some of E's blood orange sorbet at intermission. All simply delightful!

Il Tabarro was performed first, and - man! - was it dark!  The plot is simple; there are very few characters.  The main players are Michele, a ship owner, Michele's wife Giorgetta, and Luigi, one of Michele's employees.  It turns out that Giorgetta has a thing for Luigi, and Michele doesn't take that news very well.  It's short, it's dark, it's super intense.  And there's a man with a cape.

Pagliacci is nominally less depressing, and I'm sure it scandalized a number of the more reserved theater-goers.  That Nedda (wonderfully and expressively portrayed in this version) is pretty saucy!  She's the wife of Canio, but she's in love with Silvio.  And in the opera, those characters put on a play for the townspeople in which they tell the story of a woman in love with a man other than her husband.  Nedda thinks it's just a performance, and doesn't realize that Canio knows the truth about her and Silvio.  As with Il Tabarro, things don't end will for the fickle woman and her lover.

Of the two, I think I preferred Il Tabarro, despite the fact that I'm pretty sure half the theater needed a drink or an antidepressant (or both) when it was over.  They were both thoroughly enjoyable, but I like ships, so it automatically got bonus points, and I generally prefer the direct over the roundabout and poetic.  More bonus points.  Both of them totally worth the late night though!