Metropolitan Opera Radio: Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci

Airs Saturday, January 13, 2018. The 2017-18 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with the verismo double bill of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. Roberto Alagna stars in both leading roles: the faithless Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana, and Canio, the head of a traveling performance troupe in Pagliacci. The French tenor previously sang both operas in one evening at the Met in 2009, and is one of ten singers to have accomplished this feat with the company since 1901. Alagna’s co-stars for Cavalleria Rusticana are Ekaterina Semenchuk in the role of Turiddu’s jilted lover Santuzza and George Gagnidze as the cart driver Alfio. In Pagliacci, Aleksandra Kurzak sings the role of Canio’s wife Nedda, with Gagnidze as fellow entertainer Tonio. Nicola Luisotti conducts both operas, seen in a production by Sir David McVicar. Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci will be heard live over Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 12:00 p.m. CT on Saturday, January 13.