Leoncavallo's Pagliacci (“The Clowns”) gave the world its original image of the tragic (and killer) clown — a story of jealousy and heartbreak inside a traveling troupe of players so enduring that, decades later, it inspired Smokey Robinson to write the words to one of Motown's most beloved hits, “The Tears of a Clown”. That connection is the whole point of this production: two of the most powerful storytelling traditions to come out of the twentieth century, opera and Motown, both built on the ache behind the performance and the smile that hides it.