Pagliacci is Leoncavallo’s most famous opera. The composer stroke big at his very first attempt. Just think that his second most performed opera is La Bohème. Yes, the same story as Puccini’s masterpiece, but Leoncavallo’s opera about the French bohemians isn’t among the top 100 today. 

But Pagliacci deffenitely is. And it is very often combined with another one-act opera to make up a full evening performance. For many years the standard combination was with Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascagni. That program was so common that the English speaking world has a label for it… Cav/Pag.

Lately, many theaters have started experimenting with other one-act operas or ballets together with either of the two operas.