I bought my ticket online at the last minute and headed to Togeki. The MET: Live in HD Encore 2026 was showing a double bill: Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. Both are painful stories, but I could watch the “Vesti la giubba” scene over and over. Yes, today was the best, as always!
More from this place -> August Program at the Kabukiza Theatre: Part 1 (August 2026, Third Visit) | Subscription Service 4
Togeki, Showa Retro in Full Force
Togeki, in Higashi-Ginza, is a Shochiku-run cinema that screens Cinema Kabuki and The MET: Live in HD. A huge banner for the MET’s 2025–26 season hung over the entrance, and I got unreasonably excited: “Togeki! I’m heeere!” Inside, the ceiling patterns, the lighting, the signage — everything is retro, pure Showa era. I don’t dislike this atmosphere at all (I love it, actually).
And there in the lobby: a photo-op panel of Kabuki Nyantaro. Go to any Shochiku cinema and he’s there, of course 😂 I said hello to the familiar face, then checked the flyer and the day’s timetable. Total running time, including bonus features and the interval: 3 hours 22 minutes. A full meal.
Cavalleria Rusticana: Dark, and Beautiful
First up, Cavalleria Rusticana. The whole stage had a dark, heavy mood, but the lighting was so beautiful, and together with the sorrow in the melodies, every frame looked gorgeous.
The revolving stage was a delight. The props barely changed, yet a rotation so slight I thought, “Wait, is the stage moving?” plus the movement of the performers completely changed the scene. Oh, so that’s how you do it, I kept thinking.
The farewell to his mother was hard to watch…
But hold on. The reason you get killed is your own cheating, right? Your ex — the one who promised you a future — married someone else while you were away in the army. So you started a new romance to forget her. And then? When the ex came back wanting you again, you took her back? And dumped the new girlfriend? A love triangle, a tangled affair… classic material, but yes, that’s absolutely the kind of thing you get killed for (lol). Opera or kabuki, that’s a death sentence. So why do I cry anyway, knowing all that 🤣
Then the curtain falls, and right after dying, out he comes for the curtain call. Kabuki almost never has curtain calls, so this always feels fresh — and a little funny. Dead one minute, fine the next!! (lol)
Interval: “Once I Change Costume, My Head Changes Too”
During the interval they showed an interview with the star, Marcelo Álvarez. After singing Turiddu in Cavalleria, he goes straight on to sing Canio in Pagliacci — two leads back to back. Asked how he switches his head between such different roles, he said something like, “Once I change costume, my head changes too.”
Hmm, really? That was my honest reaction.
I bought a coffee during the interval to reset. Even at over three hours, that one break makes it easy. It also came at exactly the right moment for a restroom trip.
Pagliacci: He Really Meant It
Pagliacci began, and the Canio who walked out was a completely different man. Not the looks, not the voice — the person inside was different. He really meant it… Which, of course, is what you’d expect from a consummate professional 🥺
Then came “Vesti la giubba.” Everything that followed was unbearable in the best way. His expressions were beyond anything, and I could watch that scene over and over. In the final stretch, the play-within-the-play and reality kept bleeding into each other, and once confusion and fear started mixing on Nedda’s face (Patricia Racette), it was hell. From the moment I went “Canio and Nedda, are you kidding me 😭” it was non-stop to the end.
Both operas are painful, but my clear favorite is Pagliacci. And once again at the opera I thought, “Yep, someone dies!” Kabuki, bunraku, opera — my, how people die 😂
What The MET: Live in HD Looks Like
Just like Cinema Kabuki, the close-ups are a gift. You see fine details of expression you’d never catch from a theater seat. On the other hand, the resonance and depth of the sound — you probably only get that from the real thing.
I knew the plots roughly, and the subtitles were more than enough. My Italian stopped at “grazie,” “ciao,” and “mamma” 😂
My seat was behind the center aisle, slightly to the left. Apparently the angle that feels most natural to me is “beside the hanamichi” — a kabuki habit showing through. The seats recline a little, like a planetarium, and that alone makes me sleepy, but this was a stage I couldn’t look away from long enough to doze.
Wrapping Up
On the way out, down the long red-carpeted staircase. Showa retro to the very end ❤️
After that, a detour to the Kabukiza. It happened to be opening day of the Shuzansai September Program. If the timing had worked, I’d have taken any single-act ticket just to soak up some kabuki, but I had another appointment 😭
I’d have loved to see Kashō Nakamura in Sanja Matsuri, but that was in the Matinee anyway, so it was impossible on top of impossible.
Encore 2026 also has Turandot, so maybe I can squeeze in one more this month. Or an encore of Pagliacci wouldn’t be bad either 🤡
