DATE: Thursday, March 6, 1997               TAG: 9703060043

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CRAIG SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   79 lines

VIRGINIA OPERA RETURNS REALISM TO CLASSIC ``I PAGLIACCI''

RUGGIERO LEONCAVALLO found the inspiration for his greatest opera in his own back yard.

In the 1870s, when he was growing up in Naples, a traveling theatrical troupe set up near his home. After the performance, a jealous actor murdered his wife. Leoncavallo's father was the judge at the trial.

The premiere of ``I Pagliacci,'' May 21, 1892, at Milan's Teatro Dal Verme, revolutionized opera. Until then, composers were concerned with the sweeping, stylized passions of larger-than-life characters. Virginia Opera's February production of ``Julius Caesar'' is a good example.

Leoncavallo, though, presented his drama in a way in which the everyday opera-goer of the 19th century could identify.

The Italians have a word for it - verismo. Literally translated, it means ``realism.'' The movement reached its pinnacle in the masterworks of Giacomo Puccini (``La boheme,'' ``Tosca''), but its genesis was in ``I Pagliacci.''

``To me, this is the seminal work of realism,'' said general director Peter Mark, who will conduct the Virginia Opera production opening Friday night at the Harrison Opera House in Norfolk.

``Verismo tried to take the art down from the gods and imbue it with everyday emotions and characters. Therefore, what people came to the theater to see was something closer to the lives they were leading. This opera just struck gold in terms of its dynamism, its grittiness and its reality. It created a sensation.''

Besides writing the music and libretto, Leoncavallo, who composed 16 operas, set ``I Pagliacci'' as a play-within-a-play, further drawing audiences into the action.

Canio, the star of the troupe, overhears his wife, Nedda, confess her love to the handsome villager, Silvio. They part, promising each other, ``Till tonight, and then I'll be yours forever!'' Enraged, Canio threatens Nedda with a dagger if she doesn't tell him the name of her lover. She refuses.

The comedy that the troupe performs involves a triangle between Pagliaccio (Canio), Columbine (Nedda) and Harlequin (Beppe, another member of the troupe). During the performance, when Columbine and Harlequin part with the identical words - ``Till tonight, and then I'll be yours forever!'' - Canio breaks down, tears off his wig and cries out, ``No, Pagliaccio non son,'' he is no longer Pagliaccio.

Again, he demands that Nedda reveal her lover. Stepping out of character, she refuses. He pulls his knife and stabs her in the heart in front of the audience. As Nedda dies, she calls Silvio's name. The villager rushes onto the stage, and is stabbed.

``I Pagliacci'' is most often presented in one act, with another one-act opera sharing the bill. Virginia Opera is breaking tradition with its third production of the work.

By staging it in two acts (restoring scenes and passages trimmed from one-act productions) and using Leoncavallo's full orchestration (there will be 53 musicians in the pit) Mark hopes to get at the essence of verismo.

``This time around, we're attempting to tell the story totally realistically,'' he said. ``For the first time, audiences will see a complete `Pagliacci.' ''

He also has a few neat tricks planned to bridge the gap between house and stage. Near the end of intermission, acrobats, a drummer and a trumpet player will set up in the Harrison lobby to summon audiences back to their seats - the same way tumblers and musicians usher the onstage audience to ``I Pagliacci's'' second-act play-within-a-play.

``Before Act 1,'' he added, ``they (audiences) will come into the theater as soon as the house opens and see a fairly barren stage. The curtain will be up, the lighting equipment down. A half-hour before (curtain), our crew essentially will set up the drama in the same way the traveling troupe sets up the truck when it arrives.''

A fight director was hired and the actors were coached in the use of the bullwhip. The violence literally explodes, Mark said.

``I think the impact will be spectacular. I don't think people will be able to take anymore than that.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

L. TODD SPENCER

Deborah Raymond and Robin Reed in the Virginia Opera production of

"I Pagliacci."

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