Leon Cavallo's I, Pagliacci is the basis for The Clowns, an intense drama that unfolds as Pagliacco, the lead actor in a touring troupe, discovers his wife in the arms of another man on the afternoon of a performance. Like all great performers, Pagliacco and the troupe decide the show must go on -- but there are no rehearsals for the show he has in mind, because when murder is the plot, all must be perfected in one take.
"Pagliacci is the last of my `short' operas before embarking on (Wagner's) The Ring of the Nibelung," Russell explains. "I've been most fortunate to find the ideal collaborator in Galen Showman. And I have no doubt I got him just before he finds himself booked solid for the next three years." Not only was the choice of Showman timely, but so was the choice of subject matter. "In the wake of news events of the last several years, this century-old story of a man whose public face is that of a well-loved personality, but who is in fact an obsessively jealous wife-murderer seems more relevant -- and tragic -- than ever."
The Clowns is a 32-page black-and-white comic with lay out and inks by P. Craig Russell, and pencils and lettering by Galen Showman. The Clowns debuts April 22, and admission for this operatic one-shot is $2.95 at the door of comic-book shops everywhere.