Anita Rachvelishvili in Dutch National Opera’s “unforgettable” ‘Pagliacci/Cavalleria rusticana’ bill

Opera-goers can find in-demand star Anita Rachvelishvili on the stage of the Dutch National Opera for an ongoing double bill of Cavalleria rusticana/Pagliacci, which opened with an “unforgettable opening night” on Thursday.

The mezzo-soprano is featured as Santuzza in the Cavalleria cast of the staging led by musical directors Lorenzo Viotti and Aldert Vermeulen at the Amsterdam venue.

The theatre celebrated the launch show of the bill earlier today while the Georgian singer was equally inspired by the run-up to and the opening of the production.

Eight shows of the staging are set to be hosted by the company, with stage director Robert Carsen heading the bill at the downtown theatre.

When the masks come off, truth becomes theatre and theatre becomes truth. Poised somewhere in between is the chorus, navigating us through the worlds of fact and fiction."

As the playwright Luigi Pirandello once said, ‘The drama is inside us; we are the drama’. Carsen’s vision eschews clichés: no commedia dell’arte characters in this Pagliacci, nor Sicilian couleur locale in his Cavalleria rusticana” — Dutch National Opera

Rachvelishvili is joined in the cast by the likes of mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb (as Lola) and baritone Roman Burdenko (Alfio), with the roster dressed in costumes by Annemarie Woods.

Radu Boruzescu worked on set design for the production, with Carsen and Peter Van Praet contributing with lighting design.

The double bill celebrates the legacy of the bill premiered in in Rome in 1890 and Milan in 1892, with Cavalleria by Pietro Mascagni and Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo presenting "tales of passion, jealousy, and death set in southern Italy” (The Metropolitan Opera).

The Amsterdam theatre will run the production through September 28.