Pagliacci

The San Carlo Symphony Orchestra is conducted during the opera's prologue. Tonio then appears from behind a curtain and sings about the story. During the 1860s in Montalto, Italy, as the residents are celebrating the Feast of the Assumption, a troupe of traveling players arrives dressed in the costume of the characters in the play they are to perform. The local citizens stage a folk dance and others join in the singing. Canio tells the crowd of the troupe's play concerning Pagliaccio and his unfaithful wife. Alone in front of the stage, Nedda sings of her fears that Canio will discover her infidelity with a villager, calming herself with thoughts of singing birds and her childhood. When Tonio approaches and tries to force himself upon her, she mockingly refuses his advances and repulses him with a whip. Departing, he threatens revenge. Nedda's lover, Silvio, enters and assures her that they are alone. As they embrace and plan their post-performance elopement, Tonio overhears them. He retrieves Canio from a nearby tavern in time for him to hear Nedda proclaim to Silvio, "Tonight, love, and forever I am yours." Canio chases the man, but he escapes. Canio then demands the name of her lover from Nedda, but she refuses to reveal his identity. Beppe restrains Canio as he tries to stab Nedda, then Tonio tells the husband that his wife's lover will surely betray himself by some action at the performance that night. As the troupe readies itself for the performance, Tonio collects admissions. The curtain opens and eight women, four each dressed as Columbines and Arlecchinos, perform a short minuet. Next, Nedda, as Columbine, sets a table in the room. She invites her lover, Arlecchino, played by Beppe, who has been serenading her with a lyre, to join her. Taddeo, portrayed by Tonio, enters and makes exaggerated love to her, but Arlecchino enters through a back window and mimics Taddeo, who departs. Silvio makes his way into the audience watching the play, while Arlecchino and Columbine dance and play with a trick chicken. Arlecchino has brought a bottle of wine and some sleep-inducing formula to facilitate his elopement with Columbine later. Taddeo returns and informs the lovers that Columbine's drunken husband Pagliaccio, played by Canio, is approaching. Taddeo hides in a closet and Arlecchino makes a quick escape out the window as Columbine recites, "Tonight, love, and forever I am yours," the same words used earlier with Silvio. Taddeo is retrieved from the closet by Columbine; he half-heartedly insists that Columbine has not deceived her husband. Canio, no longer acting, demands, "his name!" from Nedda, who vainly tries to maintain a theatrical facade. The audience is absorbed in the acting and applauds when Canio throws Nedda to the ground. Taking a knife, Canio, again refused the name of the lover by Nedda, stabs and kills her. When the audience restrains the obviously moved Silvio, Canio plunges the dagger into him, and he falls dead at Nedda's feet.