Ruggero Leoncavallo
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September 5-14, 2025
Friday September 5, 2025 | 7:30PM
Saturday September 6, 2025 | 7:30PM
Sunday September 7, 2025 | 7:30PM
Friday September 12, 2025 | 7:30PM
Saturday September 13, 2025 | 7:30PM
Sunday September 14, 2025 | 7:30PM
3510 Pasadena Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90031
(DO NOT ENTER ON HOMER ST.)
Park at 3510 Pasadena Avenue.
Do not go to Homer Street.
POP opens our 15th Anniversary Season with an immersive production of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, under the stars and overlooked by gorgeous Victorian houses at Heritage Square Museum. One of the most iconic operas of all time, Pagliacci is best known for the haunting aria “Vesti la giubba” and its unforgettable main character, Canio—the clown who must perform while his world falls apart. Set in a worn-down traveling circus, Pagliacci explores themes of jealousy, betrayal, and the blurry line between stage and reality. In classic POP fashion, this production places the audience in the middle of the drama during the opera’s famous “play-within-a-play.”
Performed outdoors with orchestra. Sung in Italian with English supertitles. This performance includes a 20 minute intermission and is intended for audiences aged 13 and up.
NATHAN BOWLES
CANIO
JANET TODD
NEDDA
JOEL BALZUN
TONIO
KENNETH STAVERT
SILVIO
ARNOLD GEIS
BEPPE
BLAIR SALTER
CONDUCTOR
JOSH SHAW
DIRECTOR
CAST
SYNOPSIS
1940, A Rural Village
PROLOGUE
Tonio, dressed as a clown, explains to the audience what they are about to see on stage. "Real are the tears and suffering that you are to see!" Tonio exclaims. "After all, an actor loves and hates just like everyone else, and a passionate heart beats beneath his clownish attire."
ACT I
The drama begins. A company of travelling comedians arrives in the small village. The townspeople joyfully greet Canio, the leader of the company, his actress wife Nedda, Tonio the clown, and Beppe the actor. The performance will be in the evening, so one of the villagers suggests the comedians pass their time in the tavern. Canio and Beppe agree readily and ask Tonio to go too, but he declines. He is nursing a grievance against the company’s jealous leader for offending him. Canio’s jealousy is justified, for his wife, Nedda, has a lover in this village. Left alone, Nedda dreams of meeting him. Unfortunately, Tonio also desires Nedda. Having snuck up unnoticed, Tonio declares his love for her. Nedda responds to the hideous clown’s declarations with derisive laughter, cooling his passions with a lash of a whip. Impotent with rage Tonio leaves, threatening revenge. Meanwhile, despite the danger, Silvio appears, sincerely and lovingly devoted to Nedda. He implores her to abandon her life on the road and run away with him. Suddenly the wrathful voice of the company’s leader is heard, Canio having rushed back to call for the offended clown. Silvio, however, manages to flee unrecognized. Canio insists that Nedda name her lover, but to no avail. Canio leaps at her with a knife. Beppe pulls him off and Tonio calms him, saying that the fugitive will return for the performance and there he will somehow give himself away. The show will begin soon…
Intermission
ACT II
The villagers gather in anticipation of the performance. Tonio and Beppe usher the crowd to their seats, with Silvio among them. Onstage, the drama mirrors the actors’ own tangled lives: Taddeo (Tonio) loves Colombina (Nedda), but she loves Arlecchino (Beppe). Their secret meeting is interrupted by Pagliaccio (Canio). Colombina’s parting words to Arlecchino echo the very ones Nedda spoke to her real-life lover—driving Canio into a jealous rage he can no longer contain. The play collapses into reality, and tragedy ensues.
