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Forget Covent Garden! If you want to see a really moving performance of Leoncavallo’s short opera _I Pagliacci,_ go to Opera Holland Park. A group of _commedia dell’arte players_, led by

Canio, are putting on a performance where his wife Nedda is apparently unfaithful to him. As life imitates art, he murders her and her lover Silvio during the performance, and we are very

much there with a poor Italian audience watching the play when things go horribly awry. At Holland Park the orchestra is surrounded both behind and in front by the players and their audience

on an open stage. We see the stage preparations being made and can identify with the spectators in a small southern Italian town. The concept of a play within a play is brilliantly conveyed

by director Martin Lloyd-Evans, with designs by Bridget Kimak showing ordinary working people coming together for an evening’s entertainment. You simply can’t get such an atmosphere in a

large opera house, and the drama was absolutely gripping. Indeed the opera was a hit from its first performance in 1892, and the UK premiere in London followed a year later with Nellie Melba

as Nedda. The French baritone engaged to sing Tonio (the fool) at the Italian premiere felt his role had demanded more heft, and Leoncavallo inserted a prologue which is extremely

effective. This is where Tonio can tell us that the tears we actors shed are not real, and yet of course at the end they very much are. We see Canio silently weeping as he puts on his makeup

front stage, with his back to the audience. At the end, in one of the audience gangways, we witness his murder, knife in hand, of Nedda. It all seems terribly real and under the baton of

Francesco Cilluffo with the City of London Sinfonia, the raw emotion in the orchestra came through brilliantly. Cilluffo was well chosen by Opera Holland Park — an Italian conductor who

wrote his musical thesis on one of the greatest twentieth century emotional rollercoasters, Britten’s _Billy Budd_. As Tonio, who sings the prologue, Robert Hayward gave a hugely sympathetic

portrayal, as he reminds the audience that actors have feelings too. Already we see a man fighting his own demons, a man who will instigate the destruction of the small company he works

for, and the death of the woman (Nedda) he is obsessed with. As for Nedda, beautifully portrayed by Alison Langer, we already see her exchanging glances with Harry Thatcher’s attractive and

vocally passionate Silvio before the main drama commences. Her husband Canio was brilliantly sung by David Butt Philip, who has now developed a real dramatic presence. His _Vesti la giubba_,

delivered as a serious contribution to the story rather than a lollipop, was rewarded with thunderous applause. Indeed the whole performance, including a fine Beppe by Zwakele Tshabalala,

received well-deserved cheers. This is as fine as it gets — a thoroughly convincing _Pagliacci_ that should not be missed. It was preceded by another short opera to open the evening: _Il

Segreto di Susannah_ by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari. This drawing room comedy featured Clare Presland as an attractive Countess Susannah, who hides her secret, with Richard Burkhard singing

brilliantly as her husband, and John Savournin as their servant playing the role almost silently as a frazzled John Cleese. The lightness of the music under the fine baton of John Andrews

made this a delightful precursor to the main evening’s entertainment. Altogether a huge success. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every

angle. We have an important contribution to make, one that’s needed now more than ever, and we need your help to continue publishing throughout these hard economic times. So please, make a

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