Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s 1985 production of Pagliacci (and Cavalleria rusticana) was one of the French director's last assignments at the Vienna State Opera before his untimely death in 1988.

The sensation of that June evening in 1985, however, was Plácido Domingo’s consummate performance in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. He was more than an expressive singer with an incomparable tenor voice, he was also a truly great actor able to convey the whole world of his emotions to every member of the audience.

Domingo’s ability to bring out utter hopelessness transformed Leoncavallo’s hackneyed opera into a highly individual tragedy from whose sway no one could escape. The dramatic intensity of his performance fired the other singers, too: with her extraordinary vocal skills, Ileana Cotruba was able to make Nedda’s easygoing attitude as credible as her genuine feeling for Silvio and her struggle to safeguard the new love that had entered her life; Wolfgang Schöne gave Silvio an unusually clear-cut character; and Heinz Zednik's presence in the cast likewise gave Peppe a whole new dimension. Finally, French baritone Matteo Manuguerra's powerful voice produced a terrifyingly evil Tonio. By the end of the evening, both the public and the critics were genuinely gripped.