Search - William Dazeley, Alan Opie, Ruggero Leoncavallo :: Leoncavallo: Pagliacci

While occasionally the bel canto operas sound odd in English, here we have a verismo opera, which does not rely on the type of mellifluousness that bel canto requires. The translations avoid silly archaisms and convey the flavor of the dramas vividly. "If ever he discovered, he'd beat me like a dog," Nedda sings even more pointedly than the direct translation "Oh, if he caught me /He's so brutal." Dennis O'Neill is the Canio--his diction is exemplary, and the strain put on his voice at forte above the staff seems to suit the character. Alan Opie's Tonio is towering from his very first "Hello" (a nice substitute for "Si puo?") through his cowering, nasty asides to his final vengeance. Rosa Mannion pulls out all the stops as Nedda. David Parry never rushes the action (this is the slowest Pag on the market), but he leads with an inner tension that guides the work to its inevitable tragic conclusion. The other cast members, the Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, and the London Philharmonic are all first-rate. --Robert Levine