The Illinois State University College of Fine Arts and School of Music invite you to Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci, sung in Italian with English supertitles and presented by the Civic Chorale in collaboration with Midwest Institute of Opera Festival Orchestra at 8 p.m., Saturday, April 6, in the Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall.

The saga of a jilted lover and a jealous husband, I Pagliacci tells the tale of Canio, the leader of a traveling commedia dell’arte troupe. Canio is the clown who must laugh, and make others laugh, while masking his grief after learning that his wife Nedda has betrayed him with another man. In the end, art meets tragedy in a rage of passion and jealousy.