Following the productions of its landmark 60th anniversary season, San Diego Opera will open its 2025-26 season with Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. The timeless tale of love, jealousy, and revenge runs Friday, October 31, Saturday, November 1, and Sunday, November 2 at the San Diego Civic Theatre. The opera will be sung in Italian with projected translations in English and Spanish.
Pagliacci (pah-LYAH-chee) – among the most performed operas in North America tells the tragic story of a traveling commedia dell’arte troupe led by the temperamental clown, Canio, who suspects his wife Nedda of infidelity. The drama unfolds as other members of the theatrical troupe – Tonio, a fool in love with Nedda; Beppe, a comedian who plays Nedda’s lover on stage; and a chorus of spectators of all ages (including Silvio, Nedda’s secret lover) – blur the line between performance and reality, culminating in a shocking finale featuring some of opera’s most recognizable and well-loved music.
Written in 1892 in the Verismo (realism) style, Pagliacci has remained relevant for its enduring themes of jealousy, love, betrayal, and violence, which are as gripping today as at the opera’s premiere.
David Bennett, the Joann Clark General Director and CEO of San Diego Opera, says he chose the “gritty verismo melodrama” this season as a “celebration of the human voice and its capacity to tell stories.” The production stars the “riveting” and “full-bodied tenor” (Opera Today) Jonathan Burton in the role of Canio, and the “confident and supple lyric soprano” (Opernglas) Hailey Clark as Nedda, plus baritone Kidon Choi as Tonio, Timothy Murray as Silvio, and Arnold Livingston Geis as Beppe.
Pagliacci will be accompanied by the San Diego Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Principal Conductor Yves Abel, and directed by Christopher Mattaliano.
Later this season, the San Diego Opera will present Gioachino Rossini’s comedy The Barber of Seville, February 13-15, 2026 and Georges Bizet‘s tragedy Carmen from March 27-29.
