Great Italian drama! A stage filled with “real life”, with artificially generated, convincing reality: sobs, gasps, tears, transformation, and exhaustion, adorned with a sugar-sweet “choir of bells” and a real punch-up for the best view of the village theatre, which is to become the scene of a bloody tragedy. Der Bajazzo (Pagliacci) is a great, sparkling, shimmering, escalating show that piles up all the assets of Italian opera – until finally everything collapses and all that is left is the unvarnished finale. And you never know how close it may get to real life.