Hello everyone! Octavio Cardenas here, Stage Director for Pagliacci. This is my fourth collaboration with Opera SB, and the fourth time directing the opera. However, this the first time I set the story outside its traditional setting. Kostis approached me with the idea of creating a production inspired by Italian Neorealist cinema back in the spring. I have to say I am a little embarrased I never made that connection before, especially since Fellini’s La strada is one of my favorite movies, and its story has a lot of similarities with Pagliacci!
Giulietta Masina and Anthony Quinn in Federico Fellini’s La strada (1954)
My collaborator Daniel Chapman and I came up with the idea of setting the opera inside a film studio from the 1950’s. The character of Tonio states in the prologue that the author seeks to portray the characters in a different light, exposing the flaws of the human spirit. This is in line with neorealism’s intent to capture the lives and struggles of everyday people. With that in mind, in our production Tonio becomes a film director, seeking to capture the characters in their most vulnerable situations. The chorus becomes the invited audience to the filming of a new movie.
In rehearsal for Pagliacci, with Ben Lowe, Rob Stahley, and Alaysha Fox
To create the effect of the cinematic experience, we are using a real camera on stage, which captures the performers at various moments, and projects the frame on different surfaces of the stage in real time. This is by no means a new device, but we felt that it fit the flow of our story and the nature of our setting particularly well.
There is always a potential risk in bringing a camera into the mix: opera audiences come to the theater to experience the performance live, not on a screen. For that reason we have been very careful not to over-use this device. Even though the camera is on stage for the whole show, we only use it during selected moments that show a critical shift in a character’s emotional journey, or to capture an especially poignant facial expression. We also created a typically neo-realist sequence by ‘filming’ the chorus during the opera’s only ‘set piece’, the beautiful Bell Chorus of Act 1. I hope you enjoy the show!
What is ‘Italian Neorealism’?
A scene from Lucchino Visconti’s ‘The Bicycle Thieves”
Italian neorealism (Italian: Neorealismo), also known as the Golden Age of Italian Cinema, was a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class.They are filmed on location, frequently with non-professional actors. […] Italian Neorealist filmmakers used their films to tell stories that explored the contemporary daily life and struggles of Italians in the post-war period.’
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