Lyric Opera of Chicago will present a murderous double feature of Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci — known collectively as Cav/Pag — two timeless operas that ignite music’s most incendiary emotions, on stage November 1 – 23, 2025. While both stories of Cav/Pag are set within southern Italian culture and tradition, their themes are universal; they tell of love that consumes, and revenge that devours. This chilling Lyric production returns for the first time in more than 15 years.
Ordinary lives erupt in extraordinary ways. More than just a random double bill, the two operas of Cav/Pag are united through the verismo style they defined. This 19th-century form of Italian opera broke from the traditional focus on mythology and royalty to ground itself in the realistic and often gritty depictions of everyday life.
