Toronto City Opera To Open 2025 Season With Leoncavallo’s PAGLIACCI

Toronto City Opera will open its 2025 season with Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, a powerful tale of love, jealousy, and betrayal. Directed by Sawyer Craig and conducted by Artistic Director Jennifer Tung, the new production will be performed November 19, 22, and 23, 2025, at the 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media & Education. Set in the waning days of a mid-20th-century traveling circus, this intimate staging will blur the boundaries between performance and reality as a troupe’s comedic play spirals into real-life tragedy.

“Pagliacci has some of the most moving and dramatic music in the Italian repertoire, it’s incredibly powerful,” said Artistic Director Jennifer Tung, who will lead the production from the podium with Ivan Estey Jovanovich at the piano. “The 918 Bathurst Centre creates an immersive atmosphere, you’ll feel like you’re part of the story.”

Administrative Director Nicholas Borg added, “The ‘play within a play’ nature of Pagliacci means our TCO chorus plays the role of the onstage audience alongside the real Toronto audience. Everyone shares the same space, blurring the lines between reality and drama.”

PAGLIACCI

The cast features Cassandra Amorim as Nedda, Ross Mortimer as Canio, Johnathon Kirby as Tonio, James Coole-Stevenson as Silvio, and Cameron Mazzei as Beppe.

Now celebrating its 80th anniversary, Toronto City Opera continues its tradition of bringing accessible, high-quality opera to the community. Founded as an opera workshop at Central Technical High School in 1946, the company has grown into one of Toronto’s most inclusive opera organizations, offering emerging professionals the chance to perform leading roles while welcoming community members into the chorus.

“The community chorus is the heart of TCO,” Tung said. “I always make sure there’s significant chorus involvement in every production we choose.”

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