Pagliacci Family Matinee At Seattle Opera

At the Family Matinee, special events for kids include complimentary temporary tattoos, clown noses, and clown face painting. Members of the cast will be available in the Hall for photographs with the kids.

Immediately after the performance, student ticket holders are invited to the Spafford Lobby for a complimentary sample slice from Pagliacci Pizza. The KING FM Instrument Petting Zoo will be set up in the Promenade to allow kids to explore a world of instruments, from clarinets to xylophones.

Leoncavallo’s opera, which according to the composer was based on an actual court case, chronicles a single day in the lives of a group of traveling performers—a day that reveals the real pain and tragedy hidden by the painted faces.

The opera’s most famous aria “Vesti la Giubba (Put on the costume)” became the first recording in history to sell one million copies when it was recorded by the great Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, and it has been a standard of great Italian tenors from Caruso on. The opera remains consistently in the top 20 favorite operas of American audiences. -- www.seattleopera.org