With an extensive background in the legal field, Edward Reicin also heads MPC Containment International as director and president. An opera aficionado who has performed in local productions, Edward Reicin supports the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
One of the company’s well-received 2021 productions under music director Enrique Mazzola was Pagliacci. Centered around a traveling troupe of commedia dell’arte performers, Ruggero Leoncavallo’s late 19th century opera focuses on fatal jealousies that arise through love affairs gone awry.
The story of Pagliacci derives from a real-world case that Ruggero’s father encountered while on the Naples police force. This incident involved a middle-aged actor murdering his wife, an actress, for her unfaithfulness on stage, in the middle of a performance. Pagliacci ends with a similar scenario, an ultimate act of revenge by a snubbed lover on stage, with the audience not realizing that this is not part of the performance.
Pagliacci’s lore is intertwined with the career of Enrico Caruso, who made a 1907 recording of the aria “Vesti la giubba” that became the first million-seller in the gramophone industry. Caruso, who took the role of spurned lover Canio, may have looked to his own life for inspiration. The tenor maintained a turbulent relationship with Ada Giachetti, who bore him two children before eloping with his chauffeur. Indeed, Caruso once confessed that the tears he cried in the role of Canio were real, as he was reminded of his unfaithful partner.
One of the company’s well-received 2021 productions under music director Enrique Mazzola was Pagliacci. Centered around a traveling troupe of commedia dell’arte performers, Ruggero Leoncavallo’s late 19th century opera focuses on fatal jealousies that arise through love affairs gone awry.
The story of Pagliacci derives from a real-world case that Ruggero’s father encountered while on the Naples police force. This incident involved a middle-aged actor murdering his wife, an actress, for her unfaithfulness on stage, in the middle of a performance. Pagliacci ends with a similar scenario, an ultimate act of revenge by a snubbed lover on stage, with the audience not realizing that this is not part of the performance.
Pagliacci’s lore is intertwined with the career of Enrico Caruso, who made a 1907 recording of the aria “Vesti la giubba” that became the first million-seller in the gramophone industry. Caruso, who took the role of spurned lover Canio, may have looked to his own life for inspiration. The tenor maintained a turbulent relationship with Ada Giachetti, who bore him two children before eloping with his chauffeur. Indeed, Caruso once confessed that the tears he cried in the role of Canio were real, as he was reminded of his unfaithful partner.
