I Pagliacci

Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857-1919) composed I Pagliacci in 1891-1892, writing both the music and libretto in approximately five months in the wake of the sensational success of Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana (1890); like that opera, it became a defining work of Italian verismo, which brought ordinary people, contemporary settings, and often violent passions to the operatic stage. Leoncavallo maintained that the story was inspired by a real murder case from his childhood in Calabria over which his father, a magistrate, had presided, although scholars have also identified possible literary and theatrical influences on the drama. Set near Montalto in Calabria during the Feast of the Assumption, Pagliacci follows a troupe of traveling commedia dell'arte performers led by Canio, whose wife Nedda secretly plans to flee with her lover, the villager Silvio; after the rejected Tonio reveals their affair to Canio, the enraged husband is forced nevertheless to take the stage that evening, where the comic play eerily mirrors his own betrayal. Unable to distinguish theatrical fiction from reality, Canio abandons his role, demands the name of Nedda's lover, and fatally stabs her before killing Silvio when he rushes forward from the audience, bringing the opera's celebrated "play within a play" to its horrifying conclusion. Pagliacci received its world premiere on May 21, 1892, at Milan's Teatro Dal Verme under the baton of the twenty-five-year-old Arturo Toscanini and achieved an immediate success, spreading with extraordinary speed to major opera houses throughout Europe and the Americas. Today, Pagliacci remains Leoncavallo's undisputed masterpiece and one of the cornerstones of the international operatic repertoire, frequently paired with Cavalleria rusticana as the traditional "Cav and Pag" double bill and especially celebrated for Tonio's Prologue, Nedda's "Stridono lass?," and Canio's devastating "Vesti la giubba," while its fusion of theatrical illusion and brutal reality continues to give the drama exceptional immediacy and power. Instrumentation: 3+1(Picc dFl3).2+1(EH).2+1(BCl).3: 4.3.3.1: Timp.Perc(1-2): 2Hp: Str (4.4.3.3.3 in set): Banda (Ob, Tpt, Bells, Glock, BD, Vn): Vocal soli (5 roles STTBarBar): Mix Chorus. Reprint edition. 11x14 oversized full score.