Ask the average Seattleite what they think of when they hear the word pagliacci and they’re almost guaranteed to answer “pizza”—or, maybe, “class action lawsuit.” One hundred years ago, though, the ...

Though mean-spirited, the jester Rigoletto — Verdi’s hapless, vengeful hunchback — wins our hearts as the outsider whom a heartless world so often abuses. “Rigoletto” remains an opera reminding us ...

Any production of Leoncavallo’s evergreen verismo masterwork I Pagliacci (The Clowns) — including the San Diego Opera’s (Oct. 31 – Nov. 2) — must grapple with the tension at the opera’s heart: its ...