On their second outing Amal Choucri Catta finds and I Pagliacci better received and I Pagliacci, Cairo Opera Company, director Asmaa El-Bakri, with Cairo Opera Orchestra, conductor Nader Abbassi and Cairo Opera Choir, director Aldo Magnato. Main Hall, Cairo Opera House, 13 to 17 February, 8 pm According to Cairo Opera House Don Giovanni has been postponed until May and Mozart's 250th birthday will be celebrated in spring. The Don was replaced for four nights at the Main Hall by two one- act operas: Ruppiero Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci and Pietro Mascagni's . Both were performed in the Main Hall last June. For their second outing the orchestra was fabulous under Nader Abbassi's stimulating baton and the choir, directed by Aldo Magnato, was superb. The two overtures, as well as Cavalleria 's wonderful intermezzo, were brilliant. Sopranos Mona Rafla and Taheya Shams El-Din were again cast in the role of Nedda, the unfaithful wife of Pagliacci, while tenor Walid Korayem was Canio, the betrayed husband, and the Italian baritone Alfio Grasso shared the role of Tonio, the jealous seducer, with Hatem El-Guenedi. The latter was a real surprise: he possesses not only a good baritone but is an excellent comedian. His prologue was perfect and his entire performance, as the hunchback and as the clown, absolutely smashing. Baritones Elhami Amin and Mustafa Mohamed shared the role of Silvio, Nedda's secret lover, while tenor Hisham El-Guindi played and sang the part of Beppe with Ibrahim Nagui. In sopranos Iman Mustafa and Jehane Fayed shared the part of Santuzza, the young peasant girl seduced by Turiddu, beautifully interpreted by the Italian tenor Mauro Pagtano, while mezzo-sopranos Hanan El-Guindi and Jala El-Hadidi shared the role of Lola, wife of the drover Alfio, sung by baritones Mustafa Mohamed and Alfio Grasso. Sarah Enani was a lovely-voiced country girl, while Jehane El-Nasser was cast as Mamma Lucia, Turiddu's mother. Jealousy, unfaithfulness, betrayal and death dominate both plots. In Cavalleria the young peasant girl, Santuzza, discovers that her lover Turiddu has deserted her for Lola. According to the plot Lola and Turiddu have been sweethearts for many years, but during the latter's military service the hot-blooded maiden decided she could not wait and married Alfio the drover. Hanan El-Guindi was fascinating in the part: tall, slender, beautifully garbed in wide crimson skirt and shawls, she took everyone's breath away. She was a brilliant Lola who never stopped coaxing, flattering and tempting Turiddu with bewitching timbre. Furious, but also saddened at discovering Lola had been betrothed to another man while he was away, Turiddo had thrown himself into Sentuzza's loving arms. Outcast by the church for her illicit love affair, when the poor girl realised Turiddu had returned to Lola she swore revenge, telling Alfio she had seen the lovers' reflection in Lola's window early that morning. In the end Alfio kills Turiddu behind the scenes while Mamma Lucia and Santuzza collapse on stage. Once again the tale was transferred from its Sicilian setting to the Sa'id, replete with a coffee-house, including wicker chairs, white-washed dovecotes, and a small Coptic church reminiscent of a terracotta sculpture. Palm-trees, houses and greenery all remained the same, and the setting led to the anomalous scene in which the habitués of an upper Egyptian coffee shop sing praises to "the ruby wine now flowing, merry spell upon you throwing, ruby wine so richly gleaming..." Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci was written at about the same time as Mascagni's . Leoncavallo's text and music are poignantly effective: raw passion and impulse are dealt with swiftly and directly and the ironic contrasts the action invites brought home effectively to the spectator. Here again the plot is dark and only death, once more, seems to lie in wait. Mona Rafla and Taheya Shams El-Din were charming as Nedda, though the latter's voice was inaudible in the lower ranges. Walid Korayem was almost convincing as the betrayed husband, though he seemed rather tense in the second half of the plot. The leader of a group of ambulant players, he is performing the part of Pagliazzo in a Calabrian -- or rather a Sa'idione -- village, much to the amusement of the inhabitants. In the play his wife Colombina, and her lover Arlecchine, plot to poison Pagilazzo. But the play mirrors Canio's real life and abandoning the script he asks Nedda to reveal the name of her real lover. She refuses and Canio, maddened by her defiance, stabs her and Silvio, who comes to her aid. Here again the backdrop, the sets, the costumes, even the cart and the horse, are the same as last June. Death, this time, comes on stage, with the clown uttering "The comedy is over" and Canio taking his dead wife into his arms while the curtain slowly falls. As the music soared to a tragic fortissimo the audience applauded robustly -- this time round, it seemed, they thoroughly enjoyed the show.
