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Pagliacci is set in Southern Italy, around 1865-70. A small theatrical road company arrives at the outskirts of town. Canio, head of the troupe, describes that night's offering, and when someone jokingly suggests that the hunchback Tonio is secretly enamoured of his young wife, Canio warns he will tolerate no flirting with Nedda. Disturbed by her husband's vehemence and suspicious glances, she envies the freedom of the birds soaring overhead. Tonio appears and indeed tries to make love to her, but she scorns him, inspiring an oath of vengeance.

Nedda in fact does have a lover - Silvio, who now arrives and persuades her to run away with him at midnight. But Tonio sees them and hurries off to tell Canio. Before long the jealous husband bursts in on the guilty pair. Silvio escapes, and Nedda refuses to identify him, even when threatened with a knife. Beppe, another player, has to restrain Canio, and Tonio advises him to wait until evening to catch Nedda's lover. Alone, Canio sobs that he must play the clown though his heart is breaking.

The villagers, Silvio among them, assemble to see the play 'Pagliacci and Colombine '. In the absence of her husband, Pagliacci (played by Canio), Colombine (Nedda) is serenaded by her lover Harlequin (Beppe), who dismisses her buffoonish servant, Taddeo (Tonio).

In the scene you will see tonight, the play is about to begin. The sweethearts in the play, dine together and plot to poison Pagliacci, who soon arrives; Harlequin slips out the window. With pointed malice, Taddeo assures Pagliacci of his wife's innocence, firing Canio's real-life jealousy. Forgetting the script, he demands that Nedda reveal her lover's name. She tries to continue with the play, the audience applauding the realism of the "acting." Maddened by her defiance, Canio stabs Nedda and then Silvio, who has rushed forward from the crowd to help her. Canio cries out that the comedy is ended.

Pagliacci by Leoncavallo

This performance is of the final scenes of the play within the play. Below are photos of some of the puppets.