Pagliacci

Opera by RUGGERO LEONCAVALLO, 1892, first performed in Milan. Here, Leoncavallo made a deliberate effort to emulate the success of PIETRO MASCAGNI'S CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA, produced about two years before, succeeding beyond all expectations. Because the two operas are short and similar in tone, they are invariably paired like symmetric twins on operatic playbills, affectionately referred to as Cav and Pag. With these two works, Leoncavallo and Mascagni inaugurated a realistic movement in opera which came to be known as VERISMO.

The correct title of Leoncavallo's opera is Pagliacci, not I pagliacci, as it is often listed.

The story of Pagliacci is derived from an actual event where an actor killed his unfaithful wife after a theatrical performance in which they both took part. (Leoncavallo's father was the judge at the murder trial.) The opera is set as a play within a play, with a group of traveling actors performing in a booth in the center of the stage. The cast of characters is that of the COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE.

Just before the curtain rises in the booth, Canio the pagliaccio (clown) learns that his wife Nedda, who plays Columbina in the play within the play, has a lover. Canio sings his famous aria Vesti la giubba (with which ENRICO CARUSO moved a generation of operagoers to tears), lamenting the necessity of putting on a clown's garb when his heart is breaking. As the play progresses, he begins to identify with the character of the drama. He demands to know the name of his wife's lover. Horrified at the reality of his actions, she refuses, and he stabs her to death. Her lover, Silvio, rushes in from the stage audience and is killed in turn. The clown then announces to the shocked spectators, "La commedia รจ finita" (the comedy is over).