Pagliacci Italian premiere, and it was given in New York on 15 June 1893, with Agostino Montegriffo as Canio. Around 1890, when Pietro Mascagni's "Cavalleria rusticana" premiered, Leoncavallo was a little-known composer. After seeing Mascagni's success, he decided to write an opera in response: one act composed in the verismo style. Leoncavallo wrote that he based the story of "Pagliacci" on an incident from his childhood: a murder in 1865, the victim of which was a Leoncavallo family servant, Gaetano Scavello. The murderer was Gaetano D'Alessandro, with his brother Luigi an accomplice to the crime. The incident resulted from a series
Sonia Theodoridou Corinna in "Il viaggio à Reims", Giulietta in "I Capuleti e i Montecchi", the title role in "Maria Stuarda", Cleopatra in "Giulio Cesare", Jenny in "Mahagonny" and Santuzza in "Cavalleria Rusticana". She has released two operatic CDs. Theodoridou has said in interviews that she enjoys singing the work of Jacques Brel, Kurt Weill, Manos Hadjidakis, Mikis Theodorakis and Édith Piaf as much as she enjoys opera. In 2010 she and her husband (conductor Theodore Orfanidis) created "Orchestra Mobile", an orchestra composed of renowned European musicians who can play in every city literally at once. In April 2011, she organised and