Pagliacci

Author: Leon Cavallo

Director: Darcia (Daria) Parada

Venue: BYOV H: Kid's Fringe Tent

Company: Mercury Opera

Edmonton International Fringe Festival from August 14-22

Reviewed by: Xanthe Couture (Edmonton Correspondent - Canada)

You did not need to know a thing about opera to be utterly absorbed in Mercury Opera's presentation two act tale of love, jealousy and murder, Pagliacci.

Although the program was a little hard to read in the dim light of the tent, a simple skim through the program gave you all the knowledge you needed to understand and thoroughly enjoy the one-of-a-kind operatic display set in a tent on the Fringe grounds.

The director of Pagliacci, Daria Parada, already knew that the tragic opera, which translates to Clowns in Italian, would be perfectly complimented by the carnival atmosphere of the loud calls of performers to see the freak shows, the smell of mini donuts wafting through the cold air and the boisterous laughter from the beer gardens of the Edmonton International Fringe Festival.

Beyond the use of the setting to make the opera even more engaging, the talent of the cast and the orchestra was first rate and the proximity of the audience to the stage highlighted the intensity of the performance.

Anyone could appreciate this performance of Pagliacci, the standard quips of opera being stuffy and elitist were definitely not applicable here and it was a clever and ingenious way to bring the world of opera to the Fringe.