Double billing of 'Cav and Pag' works

Pietro Mascagni's "Cavalleria rusticana" and Ruggero Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci" are sort of the dynamic duo of opera. Often performed together and, thus, colloquially known as "Cav and Pag," these late 19th-century works illustrate love, jealousy and deception in small-town Italy. Though different, they complement each other on multiple levels.

Opera Tampa and Maestro Anton Coppola will present these verismo masterpieces in two performances only, featuring tenor Scott Piper as Canio in "Pagliacci" and as Turiddu in "Cavalleria."

Canio is the bitter clown who performs under the guise of happiness, only to suffer internally as his wife betrays him with another man. It is only when he gazes before a mirror that he and the audience see his vulnerability.

One of the challenges of performing an iconic role like Canio is reconciling with the legacies of great tenors past, including Enrico Caruso, Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti.

"Canio is one of those roles that I'd always hoped to sing. On a personal level, it's that sense of joy and exhilaration of being able to open a door of a new room in your life and creativity," Piper says. "To work with Maestro Coppola is an amazing joy and can't be overstated. He's a consummate artist. These experiences help me navigate through a forest filled with the looming ghosts of all these tenors who have come before, who in their own right have brought something so unique to this role."

"Pagliacci," which means clowns or players in Italian, capitalizes on human frailty. Everyone can relate to or, at the very least, sympathize with the story that is told, especially upon hearing Canio's haunting, heartbreaking aria, "Vesti la Giubba."

"How many times have we had to stand in front of a mirror when something has happened to us and realize we don't have time to grieve or be angry? We have to cover up what's happening in our lives with a smile, splash cold water on our faces, buck up," he says.

Leoncavallo wrote "Pagliacci" in response to the creative rivalry created by Mascagni's success with "Cavalleria." The latter was Mascagni's greatest accomplishment, a "one-hit-wonder" that changed the face of Italian opera. His work launched the verismo movement, which celebrated naturalism, or the gritty realism of everyday life.

"Cavalleria" tells the story of Turiddu, whose fiancée, Lola, marries someone else while he's away on military duty. Turiddu returns home and seduces another girl, which sends the jealous Lola flying into his arms. Unlike the murderous Canio, Turiddu is the victim here.

"Cav and Pag" are set in different times and tell different stories, but their similarities — both in style and setting — warrant the double billing.

"The advantage of performing them together is that we get to see in one evening these two iconic verismo operas. We get a real understanding of the development of this style of opera. … We see what's distilled, how it's progressed, how the composers composed this style. It's a great opportunity. Yes, they're both intense operas, but they offer enough contrast between them in the story that they're viable together," he says.