Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo
sung in Italian with projected English translation
and
Trouble in Tahiti by Leonard Bernstein
sung in English with projected English translation

Friday, March 11, 2011 at 8pm
Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 2pm

Pantages Theater, 901 Broadway, Tacoma

Running Time: 2 1/2 hours

Real life is not perfect.

Two marriages are in trouble.  In one, passion, violence, and revenge mingle to create the classic Italian opera.  In the other, suburban discontent simmers to a distinctly American sound.

Real Life:  1892
With its iconic image of a sad clown, Pagliacci is one of the most famous Italian operas.  When his wife takes up with a villager, the leader of a troupe of traveling players confuses the play they are performing with real life, with murderous consequences.  The music matches the intense emotions on stage, from the wife's yearning for freedom to the husband's famous cry "Ridi, Pagliaccio!" as he prepares for the performance of his life.

Real Life:  1952
Premiering sixty years later, Trouble in Tahiti is about an equally troubled marriage.  Sam and Dinah, parents of a young son, are locked into a cycle of discontent with each other and their lives.  As a trio of jazz vocalists extols the joys of 1950s suburban affluence, Sam and Dinah's struggles play out on the analyst's couch, at the office, at the gym, and at a movie. Bernstein's music, composed five years before West Side Story, is jazz-inflected opera at it best, from the scat singing of the trio to Dinah's vivid depiction of a Hollywood musical fantasy.

Read More:  Plot Synopses ~ Meet the Artists ~ Facts and Trivia