Operawire's Q & A: Cadie & Jonathan Bryan on Living Life & Art Together in Piedmont Opera’s ‘Pagliacci’

If you had to boil down the one constant connecting thread of opera, romance would likely be at the top of that list of possibilities. Simply put, what connects us to the greatest of operas is usually a great love story. Think “La Bohème,” “La Traviata,” “Le Nozze di Figaro,” “Tristan und Isolde,” “Der Rosenkavalier,” etc. Romance is almost always in the air when you go to the opera.

That will be doubly the case at Piedmont Opera when its production of “Pagliacci” opens on Nov. 8, 2025. The famed verismo opera’s central relationship between Canio and Nedda is a case of frustrated love, but in the background, Nedda has given her heart to one Silvio, and halfway through the piece, Leoncavallo gave the couple one of the most ardent love duets ever written. In Piedmont Opera’s production, those two roles will be performed by real-life partners Cadie J. Bryan and Jonathan Bryan, adding an extra layer to the intensity of the moment.