Cav and Pag (as this perennial double-bill is known) is the closest thing to the general perception of opera – which means pretty near to self-parody. Violent emotions, hot-blooded peasants yelling at each other, knife fights under the Sicilian sun, a man sobbing in a clown-suit, death in the dirt. The young composers, Pietro Mascagni and Ruggero Leoncavallo, never intended their works to be yoked, but their contrasts and similarities make them an irresistible pairing. So courtly “fooflah” is replaced by religious holidays: Easter in Cav, Assumption – traditionally the year’s most unbearably hot day – in Pag. Everything else is as trad as you like: fallen women (Santuzza in Cav, impregnated, dumped, excommunicated; adulteress Nedda in Pag), bitterness,