At Teatro Goldoni of Livorno the diptych “Cavalleria rusticana” and “Pagliacci”

Sold out in February 2011 at Teatro Goldoni of Livorno for Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni and Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo, a co-production with Teatro del Giglio of Lucca,  Teatro Verdi of Pisa and Teatro Pavarotti of Modena, where the representations of the diptych received the same great success.
The reading of this production pointed to a new reading of the two masterpieces of the Young Italian School without betraying the musical writing but emphasizing their modernity.
These productions are characterized by the importance of the two female protagonists. In Cavalleria, Santuzza  is a strong woman, determined, conscious of her actions and destiny, but for these reasons marginalized from the conformism of her community. In Pagliacci, instead,  Nedda  is a victim of the violence of the male,  for her longing  of freedom and independence.
A violence against women that from the end of the nineteenth century –when the two works were composed and set in the archaic Mediterranean background of Sicily and Calabria- still continues to be repeated nowdays.
A careful work for a new version of these operas made by the director Alessio Pizzech and his collaborators: the set designer Michele Ricciarini and costume designer Cristina Aceti.
The similarities between the two titles are revealed through the director’s different approach: essencial , tragic, unavoidable as a sacred performance in Cavalleria rusticana; a mix of surreal humor as in Fellini‘s movie  with  the poetic bitterness of  Pasolini in Pagliacci .
In Cavalleria Santuzza  is placed in the middle of an articulated and complex sistem  of private and social relations, she is the “excluded” of Pirandello: she that doesn’t belong to the society  but lives on the fringes. The more her scream rises to Heaven, the more she remains alone, impenetrable in her sorrow that pervades everything.
In Pagliacci, the reading of the opera is  turned  toward the avant-garde of the twentieth century: the poetry by Fellini and at the same time a correlation to Pirandello. Pagliacci as a metaphor of the creative fervour of the early twentieth century, an artistic consideration around the relationship face/ mask.