Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci

Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci—the verismo masterpieces first paired at the Met in 1893—both feature gripping roles for the lead tenor. Many celebrated artists have sung both Turiddu and Canio during their Met careers, but only a handful have tackled them together in the same performance. One who has is Roberto Alagna, who first accomplished the feat in 2009 and then reprised his stirring portrayals during the 2017–18 season. In this Saturday Matinee Radio Broadcast, the formidable tenor leads two extraordinary dramatic casts: In Cavalleria Rusticana, mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk gives a heartbreaking performance as Turridu’s scorned lover, Santuzza, sharing the stage with mezzo-soprano Jane Bunnell as Mama Lucia, mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb as Lola, and baritone George Gagnidze as Alfio. After the intermission, Alagna returns as Canio in Pagliacci, starring alongside soprano Danielle Pastin as Nedda, baritone Alexey Lavrov as Silvio, and Gagnidze as Tonio. Nicola Luisotti takes the podium to conduct both halves of this exhilarating operatic double bill.