Paul Groves was a child when he first heard that classic, mournful tenor aria usually sung by a clown on opera stages. The song — specifically one of its passages — is usually recognized even by those ...

Opera houses possess long memories. Their walls absorb voices, scandals, revolutions, and applause with equal patience. Every so often a ...

Though mean-spirited, the jester Rigoletto — Verdi’s hapless, vengeful hunchback — wins our hearts as the outsider whom a heartless world so often abuses. “Rigoletto” remains an opera reminding us ...

"Pagliacci" was a hit when it premiered in Milan in 1892. With its beautiful musical score - including a killer aria for tenor - and a skillful libretto filled with painful human emotions and a ...

Any production of Leoncavallo’s evergreen verismo masterwork I Pagliacci (The Clowns) — including the San Diego Opera’s (Oct. 31 – Nov. 2) — must grapple with the tension at the opera’s heart: its ...