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Characters in ‘Cav & Pag’

Posted October 6, 2015

I’m rehearsing for a show coming up October 10 & 11 and I couldn’t be more thrilled to be part of it. It’s Opera SLO’s first show of the 2015-2016 season! If you’re an opera newbie, this is the show you’ll want to see. It’s not just a double-header opera (as if that isn’t enough) at the state-of-the-art Christopher Cohen Performing Arts Center, but a community wide arts collaboration featuring the crème de la crème of San Luis Obispo’s performing arts scene.

A little background: Cavalleria Rusticana (‘Cav’) by Pietro Mascagni and Pagliacci (‘Pag’) by Ruggiero Leoncavallo are actually two different productions but are frequently billed together as ‘Cav & Pag.’ Each lasts approximately one hour and both are set in rural southern Italy in the 1880s. Think gripping passion, love, betrayal, revenge – Don’t forget the traveling circus.

I’ll be in that traveling circus as just one of several local performing arts groups taking our turn center stage, including the Central Coast Children’s Choir, Civic Ballet San Luis Obispo, CORE Dance Company, Deyo Dances, Opera SLO, Resonance Vocal Ensemble, and Studio @ Ryan’s American Dance.

Preparation is key, of course, and we’re all feverishly rehearsing ahead of opening night. Suzy Miller, local choreographer extraordinaire, has me and my three co-performers leaping, rolling, spinning, and drunk stumbling all over the stage, and it would truly be a shame for you to miss this performance.

Hope to see you at the Performing Arts Center for Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, happening Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. and Oct. 11 at 2 p.m.