Pagliacci [paʎˈʎattʃi (meaning Clowns) is an Italian opera in a prologue and two acts, with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It is the only Leoncavallo opera that is still widely staged. It is often staged by opera companies as a double bill with Cavalleria rusticana by Mascagni, known as Cav and Pag.

Pagliacci premiered at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan on 21 May 1892, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, with Adelina Stehle as Nedda, Fiorello Giraud as Canio, Victor Maurel as Tonio, and Mario Ancona as Silvio. Nellie Melba played Nedda in London in 1892, soon after its Italian premiere, and was given in New York on 15 June 1893, with Agostino Montegriffo, as Canio.

Composition history

Cover of the first edition Reduction for piano & voice of Pagliacci published by E. Sonzogno, Milan, 1892

Around 1890, when Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana premiered, Leoncavallo was a little-known composer. After seeing Mascagni's success, he decided to write an opera in response: one act composed in the verismo style. Leoncavallo claimed that he based the story of Pagliacci on an incident from his childhood: a murder in 1865, the victim of which was a Leoncavallo family servant, Gaetano Scavello. The murderer was Gaetano D'Alessandro, with his brother Luigi an accomplice to the crime. The incident resulted from a series of perceived romantic entanglements involving Scavello, Luigi D'Alessandro, and a village girl with whom both men were infatuated. Leoncavallo's father, a judge, was the presiding magistrate over the criminal investigation.

Upon learning of the plot of Leoncavallo's libretto in an 1894 French translation, the French author Catulle Mendès thought it resembled his 1887 play La Femme de Tabarin, such as the play-within-the-play and the clown murdering his wife. Mendès sued Leoncavallo for plagiarism. The composer pleaded ignorance of Mendès' play. Later there were counter-accusations that Mendès' play resembled that of Don Manuel Tamayo y Baus' Un Drama Nuevo (1867). Mendès dropped his lawsuit. However, the scholar Matteo Sansone has suggested that, as Leoncavallo was a notable student of French culture, and lived in Paris from 1882 to 1888, he had ample opportunity to be exposed to new French art and musical works. These would potentially have included Mendès' play, another version of La femme de Tabarin by Paul Ferrier, and Tabarin, an opera composed by Émile Pessard that was based on Ferrier's play. Sansone has elaborated on the many parallels among the Mendès, Ferrier, and Pessard versions of the Tabarin story and Pagliacci, noting that Leoncavallo deliberately minimised any sort of connection between his opera and those earlier French works.

Leoncavallo originally titled his story Il pagliaccio (The Clown). The baritone Victor Maurel, who was cast as the first Tonio, requested that Leoncavallo change the title from the singular Il pagliaccio to the plural Pagliacci, to broaden dramatic interest from Canio alone to include Tonio (his own role).

Performance history

Pagliacci received mixed critical reviews upon its world premiere, but was instantly successful with the public and has remained so ever since. The UK premiere of Pagliacci took place at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London on 19 May 1893. The US premiere followed a month later at Grand Opera House in New York on 15 June, with American born tenor, Agostino Montegriffo, as Canio. The Metropolitan Opera first staged the work on 11 December as a double-bill with Orfeo ed Euridice, "Nedda" being sung by Nellie Melba.

The Met produced again staged Pagliacci as a double-bill, this time with Cavalleria rusticana on 22 December 1893. The two operas have since been frequently performed as a double-bill, a pairing referred to in the operatic world colloquially as "Cav and Pag". Pagliacci was produced alone in Washington National Opera's November 1997 production by Franco Zeffirelli.

Roles

French baritone Victor Maurel, creator of the role of Tonio

Role	Role in Commedia dell'arte	Voice type	Premiere cast, 21 May 1892 (Conductor: Arturo Toscanini )
Canio, head of the troupe	Pagliaccio (Pierrot)	tenor	Fiorello Giraud
Nedda, Canio's wife, in love with Silvio	Colombina, Pagliaccio's wife, in love with Arlecchino	soprano	Adelina Stehle
Tonio, the fool	Taddeo, Colombina's servant	baritone	Victor Maurel
Beppe (Peppe), actor	Arlecchino, Colombina's lover	tenor	Francesco Daddi (it)
Silvio, Nedda's lover		baritone	Mario Ancona
Chorus of villagers

Synopsis

Place: Calabria, near Montalto, on the Feast of the Assumption

Time: between 1865 and 1870.

Prologue

During the overture, the curtain rises. From behind a second curtain, Tonio, dressed as his commedia character Taddeo, addresses the audience (Si può?... Si può?... Signore! Signori! ... Un nido di memorie). He reminds the audience that actors have feelings too, and that the show is about real people.

Act 1

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the commedia troupe enters the village to the cheering of the villagers. Canio describes the night's performance: the troubles of Pagliaccio. He says the play will begin at "ventitré ore", an agricultural method of time-keeping that means the play will begin an hour before sunset. As Nedda steps down from the cart, Tonio offers his hand, but Canio pushes him aside and helps her down himself. The villagers suggest drinking at the tavern. Canio and Beppe accept, but Tonio stays behind. The villagers tease Canio that Tonio is planning an affair with Nedda. Canio warns everyone that while he may act the foolish husband in the play, in real life he will not tolerate other men making advances to Nedda. Shocked, a villager asks if Canio really suspects her. He says no, and sweetly kisses her on the forehead. As the church bells ring vespers, he and Beppe leave for the tavern, leaving Nedda alone.

Nedda is frightened by Canio's vehemence (Qual fiamma avea nel guardo), but the birdsong comforts her (Stridono lassù). Tonio returns and confesses his love for her, but she laughs. Enraged, Tonio grabs Nedda, but she takes a whip, strikes him and drives him off. Silvio, who is Nedda's lover, comes from the tavern, where he has left Canio and Beppe drinking. He asks Nedda to elope with him after the performance and, though she is afraid, she agrees. Tonio, who has been eavesdropping, leaves to inform Canio so that he might catch Silvio and Nedda together. Canio and Tonio return and, as Silvio escapes, Nedda calls after him, "I will always be yours!"

Enrico Caruso as Canio in Pagliacci, one of his signature roles

Canio chases Silvio, but does not catch him and does not see his face. He demands that Nedda tell him the name of her lover, but she refuses. He threatens her with a knife, but Beppe disarms him. Beppe insists that they prepare for the performance. Tonio tells Canio that her lover will give himself away at the play. Canio is left alone to put on his costume and prepares to laugh (the famous Vesti la giubba – "Put on the costume").

Act 2

As the crowd arrives, Nedda, costumed as Colombina, collects their money. She whispers a warning to Silvio, and the crowd cheers as the play begins.

Colombina's husband Pagliaccio has gone away until morning, and Taddeo is at the market. She anxiously awaits her lover Arlecchino, who comes to serenade her from beneath her window. Taddeo returns and confesses his love, but she mocks him. She lets Arlecchino in through the window. He boxes Taddeo's ears and kicks him out of the room, and the audience laughs.

Arlecchino and Colombina dine, and he gives her a sleeping potion to use later. When Pagliaccio returns, Colombina will drug him and elope with Arlecchino. Taddeo bursts in, warning that Pagliaccio is suspicious of his wife and is about to return. As Arlecchino escapes through the window, Colombina tells him, "I will always be yours!"

As Canio enters, he hears Nedda and exclaims "Name of God! Those same words!" He tries to continue the play, but loses control and demands to know her lover's name. Nedda, hoping to keep to the performance, calls Canio by his stage name "Pagliaccio," to remind him of the audience's presence. He answers with his arietta: No! Pagliaccio non son! He sings that if his face is pale, it is not from the stage makeup but from the shame she has brought him. The crowd, impressed by his emotional performance, which they do not realize is real, cheers him.

Nedda, trying to continue the play, admits that she has been visited by the innocent Arlecchino. Canio, furious and forgetting the play, demands the name of her lover. Nedda swears she will never tell him, and the crowd realizes they are not acting. Silvio begins to fight his way toward the stage. Canio, grabbing a knife from the table, stabs Nedda. As she dies she calls: "Help! Silvio!". Silvio attacks Canio, but Canio kills Silvio also. The horrified audience then hears the celebrated final line:

La commedia è finita! – "The comedy is finished!"

Assignment of the final line

In the original manuscript, Tonio sang the opera's final line, "La Commedia è finita!", paralleling the prologue, also sung by Tonio. The appropriation of this final line by Canio dates back to 1895. John Wright has analysed the dramaturgy of the opera in the context of assignment of the final line, and concluded that the original assignment of the final line to Tonio is the most consistent and appropriate assignment. Wright says that Tonio shows more deliberate control in his manipulation of the other characters in order to obtain his revenge upon Nedda, after she has rejected him, and is more aware of the demarcation between life and art. By contrast, Canio is unaware of the behind-the-scenes manipulations and surrenders control of his perception of the difference between life and art as the opera proceeds.

In the present day, the assignment of the final line to Canio has continued to be standard. Several exceptions, where Tonio delivers the final line, include:

• The December 1959 production at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, directed by Franco Zeffirelli
• A 1968 RAI-TV production directed by Herbert von Karajan,
• The HMV recording conducted by Riccardo Muti (EMI CMS7 63650-2)
• The Philips recording conducted by Muti (Philips 0289 434 1312), in conjunction with live performances in Philadelphia in February 1992
• The 2008 Seattle Opera production
• The 2010 Opera Grand Rapids production
• The 2013 English-language production by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
• The 2014 San Diego Opera production
• The 2014 Teatro Petruzzelli production directed by Marco Bellocchio
• The 2015 Metropolitan Opera production directed by Sir David McVicar

Orchestration

The orchestra consists of 2 flutes, 1 piccolo, 2 oboes, 1 cor anglais, 2 clarinets, 1 bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, 2 harps, timpani, tubular bells, percussion (triangle, cymbals, bass drum, glockenspiel) and strings. Additionally, there is an onstage violin, oboe, trumpet, and bass drum. Also included in the final pages of the score is a part in the percussion section marked "T.T." (not assigned in the instrumentation page at the beginning.) Performers have taken this to be a tam-tam (partly because Mascagni used one, although to much greater effect, on the final moments of Cavalleria rusticana). It is given three strokes right after the announcement that "The comedy is over".

Recordings and other media

Main article: Pagliacci discography

In 1907, Pagliacci became the first opera to be recorded in its entirety, with the Puerto Rican tenor Antonio Paoli as Canio and under Leoncavallo's personal supervision. In 1931, it became the first complete opera to be filmed with sound, in a now-obscure version starring the tenor Fernando Bertini as Canio, in his only film, with the San Carlo Opera Company. Zeffirelli directed his 1981 La Scala production for a 1982 television airing. The opera was also recorded in English in 1997 on the Chandos "Opera in English" label sponsored by the Peter Moores Foundation with Dennis O'Neill as Canio, Alan Opie as Tonio, and Rosa Mannion as Nedda.

Notes

1. ^ The title is sometimes incorrectly rendered in English with a definite article as I pagliacci. "Pagliacci" is the Italian plural for "clowns", and "i" is the corresponding plural definite article. In correct Italian, an article is put in front of the noun, but the article is not applicable here.
2. ^ According to Konrad Dryden, the original spelling of the character's name was "Peppe". Dryden, p. 38.
3. ^ Literally - the twenty-third hour, but not 23:00 hours (11pm), as translated in some libretti. The term refers to when the hours were counted from one avemmaria della sera (evening angelus) to the next, and hence one hour before avemmaria or as in some libretti 'at sundown' (Trecanni 2015, Ventitre) (Trecanni 2015, Ventiquattro) This Italian time was in use between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries, but persisted in some isolated rural communities as here, till the mid nineteenth century. (Swan 1892, Time p. 40) In other operas it appears in Rigoletto and Un ballo in maschera.

References

1. ^ Leoncavallo, R. (November 1902). "How I Wrote Pagliacci". The North American Review 175 (552): 652–654. JSTOR 25119331. 
2. ^ Dryden, p. 5.
3. ^ Sansone, Matteo (1989). "The 'Verismo' of Ruggero Leoncavallo: A Source Study of Pagliacci" (PDF). Music & Letters 70 (3): 342–362. doi:10.1093/ml/70.3.342. Retrieved 22 July 2012. 
4. ^ Dryden, p. 37.
5. ^ Dryden, pp. 39–40.
6. ^ Sims, M. 2007
7. ^ Phillips-Matz, p. 196
8. ^ Wright, John (Summer 1978). "'La Commedia è finita' – An Examination of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci". Italica 55 (2): 167–178. JSTOR 478969. 
9. ^ Williams, Jeannie, Jon Vickers: A Hero's Life. Northeastern University Press (Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA), ISBN 978-1-55553-674-9 (1999), pp 100-101.
10. ^ Daniel Webster (1992-02-02). "A Grand Finale: Two Titans – Muti And Pavarotti – Are Collaborating for the Philadelphia Orchestra's Performance and Recording of I Pagliacci.". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 2013-04-23. 
11. ^ RM Campbell (2008-01-13). "Seattle Opera's Pagliacci is a bold and vital slice of life". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved 2015-06-30. 
12. ^ Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk (2010-02-13). "Audience savors Opera Grand Rapids' Pagliacci". Grand Rapids Press. Retrieved 2015-06-30. 
13. ^ James Chute (2014-01-25). "Despite some pluses, SD Opera 'Pagliacci' disappoints". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 2015-06-30. 
14. ^ John J O'Connor (1984-11-09). "TV Weekend: Zeffirelli's Pagliacci from La Scala in 1982". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-06-13. 
15. ^ Gramophone. "Leoncavallo: Pagliacci (in English)". Retrieved 15 July 2015

Bibliography

• Dryden, Konrad. Leoncavallo: Life and Works. The Scarecrow Press (Plymouth, UK), ISBN 978-0-8108-5880-0 (2007).
• Haggin, Bernard H., Conversations with Toscanini, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1959 ISBN 9780818012198
• Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane. Washington National Opera 1956–2006. Washington, D.C.: Washington National Opera, 2006. ISBN 0-9777037-0-3.
• Swan, Howard (1892). Travellers' Colloquial Italian: A Handbook for English-speaking Travellers and Students. Idiomatic Italian Phrases with an Exact Pronunciation Represented on a New System Based Upon a Scientific Analysis of Italian Sounds, with Other General Information Useful to Travellers in Italy. London: David Nutt. Retrieved 26 April 2015. 
• Trecanni (2015). "Enciclopedia Dantesca". La cultura italiana. Retrieved 25 April 2015. 
• Weaver, William (1987). Opera's irrestistible twins. Decca Record Company.