Clowns on the Edge in Petaluma

“Pagliacci” has a play-within-an-opera, and our other piece is an opera-within-a-play - and both feature clowns doing rather unfortunate things, some very funny, and some tragic.”

So suggests Elly Lichenstein, Artistic Director of Cinnabar Theater, describing the clown-themed two-part-show Cinnabar will be opening on June 9. The wide-ranging production will include an English-language presentation of Ruggero Leoncavallo’s 125-year-old opera “Pagliacci,” preceded by the world premiere of “Rhapsody of Fools,” a short comedic farce by North Bay theater troupe Clowns on a Stick.

“Pagliacci” - featuring one of the most famous and recognizable musical passages in operatic history - is the enduring story of a traveling clown troupe, and the rising jealousy that pushes its leader, Pagliacci, to suspect his young wife of being unfaithful.

“It’s been a while since we did ‘Pagliacci,’?” says Lichenstein, asked what inspired her to present the play as the closer to Cinnabar’s 2016/2017 season. “It was time. Plus, there is a singer in the North Bay, Mark Kratz, who’s performed with us before. While I was thinking about which opera to do this year, I suddenly thought of Mark, and I thought of ‘Pagliacci,’ and I realized that the role just fits him like a glove. After that, the decision was made.

“If Mark was available,” Lichenstein says, “we were going to do ‘Pagliacci.’?”

She admits that this particular opera has a rather dark reputation. Some have glibly referred to it as “the killer clown” opera. But Lichenstein says that that description unfairly paints “Pagliacci” as a horror story, and neglects the story’s primary strength, which is the three-dimensionality of the characters.

As written, the opera begins with a prologue, in which a company member reminds the audience that actors are people, and that they have feelings too, and that whatever it is that Pagliacci ultimately does, it reveals something true and tragic about the human condition.

“Pagliacci confuses duty and gratitude with love,” explains Lichenstein. “His wife married him out of gratitude, because he plucked her off the street and gave her a profession and a home and a function, which is to become a performer in his troupe. But she feels like a captive, and she seeks a way out, and that choice leads to complications.”

As for the play’s darker elements, Lichenstein notes that some of the world’s most beloved stories - from “Romeo and Juliet” to “Don Giovanni,” contain moments of darkness and violence.

“Our graphic artist was doing some work on this show,” Lichenstein says, “and after a while she said, ‘Oh! I get it! It’s not “horror.” It’s “drama.”?’ Which it is. It’s the human drama, which in this case, does end in tragedy - as so many of the great operas do. But it’s the complexity of the characters that really makes this such a moving and captivating piece of theater.”

A relatively short opera, with a second act of only twenty minutes, “Pagliacci” is traditionally paired with some short one-act opera. But instead of doing that, Lichenstein came up with a way to balance all of that darkness by expanding on the theme of clowns.

“The fun thing we’re doing,” she explains, “is that we’ve commissioned James Pelican, and his troupe Clowns on a Stick, to create an original ‘curtain-raiser’ for us. And James is helping with some of the clown elements in ‘Pagliacci’ as well.” In fact, Lichenstein says she now considers Pelican her co-director. And he’s also going to be on stage now, too, as part of Pagliacci’s clown troupe in the opera.”

Noting that play promoters often say, ‘You’ll laugh! You’ll cry,’?” Lichenstein says that - with the addition of “Rhapsody of Fools” - Cinnabar audiences will experience something similar, but different.

“You’ll laugh, you’ll sit on the edge of your seat - and then you’ll cry,” she says.

(Contact David at david.templeton@arguscourier.com)