Our impressive local opera company will open its latest season with two of the darkest yet most accessible operas around, the frequently paired short works Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni and Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Both belong to the verismo movement, an artistic endeavor to depict the common people rather than figures of royalty and mythology. In Cavalleria Rusticana, a love triangle in Sicily brings about despair and violent death. Pagliacci arguably started the scary clown trope with its story of a vaudeville troupe riven by lust, jealousy, and madness.