Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci (Mar. 3, 1951)

Composer: Pietro Mascagni & Ruggiero Leoncavallo
Librettist: Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, Ruggiero Leoncavallo

Erede; Milanov, Tucker, Harvuot / Rigal, Baum, Warren

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Approximate running time: 2 hrs. 18 min.

Opera’s most popular double bill comes to dramatic life in this broadcast with a lineup of great singing actors, led by the magnetic Zinka Milanov as Santuzza and the incomparable Richard Tucker as her beloved Turiddu, in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana. Pagliacci’s iconic clown, Canio, is sung by Kurt Baum, opposite Delia Rigal as Nedda—his young wife whose infidelity leads to tragedy and death, in a thrilling scene of life imitating art. The legendary Leonard Warren is Tonio.