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| | I Pagliacci - Ruggiero Leoncavallo |
 | | I Pagliacci, variously translated as Traveling Players or Clowns, is a popular and often performed short opera in the verismo style. |
 | | A tight, well structured libretto uses the play-within-a-play device to explore classic themes of passion, adultery, jealousy, and revenge, all of which is highly suited to operatic expression. |
 | | Zeffirelli, never known to function in the mode of understatement, came up here with an over-the-top interpretation, placed in a contemporary urban environment, replete with three story tenements, a wedding, fire eaters, drag queens, children, animals, and enough jugglers and acrobats to staff Barnum and Bailey for a decade. |
| www.culturevulture.net /Opera/Pagliacci.htm (572 words) |
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