Two operas featuring four love affairs and three murders – Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci – will be staged at the Manoel Theatre this month.

They include some of the most beautiful operatic music, from the Easter hymn and the intermezzo in Cavalleria Rusticana, to one of the greatest of tenor arias, Pagliacci’s Vesti la giubba. Their storylines are inspired by jealousy, betrayal, lust and revenge.

Cavalleria Rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci. Since the 1890s, it has often been performed in what is known as the Cav/Pag double-bill with Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo.

They will form part of the Manoel Theatre BOV Performing Arts Festival and will be staged between March 14 and 17.

Katarina Vovkova, who played Leonora in Il Trovatore last year, will return to interpret Santuzza, the main character in Cavalleria Rusticana and Genoese tenor Mauro Pagani will be Turiddu.

In Pagliacci, the audience will be treated to duets by Malta-based Andriana Yordanova as Nedda and baritone Matteo Suk Sang Gun as Tonio.

Denise Mulholland will direct Pagliacci and Nanette Brimmer Cavalleria Rusticana. They will be working with set designer Pierre Portelli and music director Damiano Binetti.

Apart from the opera weekend, the festival includes a show by Mnozil Brass Band and a lieder recital by soprano Gillian Zammit.

There will be a pre-show talk before each performance at 6.45pm as part of the Toi Toi education programme, which aims to introduce a younger audience to opera.

For more information call 2124 6389, visit www.teatrumanoel.com.mt or send an e-mail to bookings@ teatrumanoel.com.mt.

Inna Savchenko practising for her part as Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana.