Introduction

Pagliacci (clowns) is an opera in one act with a prologue by composer Ruggiero Leoncavallo. He is also the librettist* for this opera which is supposedly based on a true story. It premiered in Milan in 1892. Pagliacci features one of the opera repertoire's most famous and popular arias, "Recitar/Vesti la giubba". 

The librettist is the person who writes the text of a dramatic musical work, such as an opera. Pagliacci is a great example of a verismo opera. The term fin-de-siècle is of tremendous importance in understanding the origin of the verismo style Italian opera of the late nineteenth century. Fin-de-siècle literally means "end of the century;" the political and artistic trends in 1890's Europe were regarded as decadent by some historians. Verismo is the Italian term for "realism" and was applied to a movement in Italian literature that grew from a renewed commitment to the rejuvenation of Italian culture. The writers, poets, and playwrights who wrote in this verismo style were particularly interested in new subject matter that reflected life in the lower classes, life in the southern regions of Italy, local customs, and regional language and idioms.

After Pagliacci opened, it gained great popularity throughout Europe and America.  Within two years it had been translated into all major European languages, including Swedish, Serbo-Croatian, and Hebrew.  The composer Ruggero Leoncavallo was a prolific writer, with 21 other operas and operettas to his credit; however, none of his other works ever matched the popularity of Pagliacci.

Characters

Character, Cast, Character Description

Canio, Tenor, Chief of a village comedy troupe (in the second act, Pagliaccio, a clown)

Nedda, Soprano, Canio’s wife (in the second act, Columbina)

Tonio, Baritone, One of the actors in the traveling troupe (in the second act, Taddeo)

Beppo, Tenor, One of the actors in the traveling troupe (in the second act, Arlecchino)

Silvio, Tenor, A young peasant

Two Villagers, Tenor & Baritone

Prologue

The opera opens with a prologue delivered directly to the audience by the hunchback Tonio, one of the actors in the traveling troupe that soon will be the center of the opera's action. Tonio reminds the audience that beneath the theatrical facade, artists harbor genuine emotions and real passions. Instead of theatrical tricks, he says, the opera will present a "slice of life" with real laughter and tears. He then orders the curtain to rise, and the action begins.

Act I

It is 3 o'clock on a hot August afternoon, and the townspeople are excited about the arrival of a traveling theater troupe. Canio, the head of the troupe, can barely make himself heard over the crowd, so he beats a huge bass drum to get their attention. Canio announces a grand show at 11:00 that evening featuring the challenges that Pagliaccio has to deal with in life (Canio’s starring role) and the intrigues of the scheming Tonio. The villagers can hardly wait. Canio, playing for laughs, delights the crowd when he slaps Tonio for paying too much attention to Nedda, Canio’s wife and the leading lady of the troupe. Tonio stomps off into the theater, muttering threats.  A group of villagers invite Canio to have a drink with them at the tavern. Beppe, another member of the troupe joins them. But when Canio invites Tonio to join them, he refuses, saying he has to groom the donkey. A villager jokingly warns Canio that Tonio might be staying behind to flirt with Nedda. But Canio doesn’t think this is funny. The theater and life are not the same thing. He warns that if he ever caught his wife Nedda with someone else, he couldn’t be responsible for his actions. 

Nedda is very troubled by this angry statement. The villagers, however, don’t believe that he’s serious. Canio, realizing that he has lost his composure, tells them that he was only joking, and that he adores his wife. Bagpipers and church bells are heard in the distance; it is time for vespers. Canio reminds the villagers to come to the show at 11 o’clock. He then goes off for his drink with a few of the village men. The others indulge in a folk-dance, and then go off to church.

Nedda reappears, recalling how angry Canio looked, and worrying that he might have discovered her secret. She shakes off these troublesome thoughts, and stirred by the beautiful afternoon, languorously enjoys the mid-August sun. When she sees a flock of birds flying overhead, she recalls how her mother could understand their songs, and envies them their freedom to soar (“Stridono lassù”).

Nedda catches Tonio spying on her. He tries to woo her, but she mocks him. He begs her not to laugh at him; he knows he is a hunchback, but he has desires, too. He is about to tell her that he loves her, but she interrupts him with a laugh, and tells him that he’ll have the chance to tell her of his love that night at the performance, when he plays the fool.  He tries to force her to listen, but she breaks away and threatens him with a whip. He swears to make her his, but when he tries to force a kiss on her, she hits him with a whip. He stumbles away, vowing revenge.

Silvio arrives, and it is immediately apparent that he is Nedda’s secret lover. She chides him for his imprudence, but he knows they will be safe. Canio and Beppe are at the tavern, and he is sure no one has seen him coming. She tells him that he almost ran into Tonio.  He dismisses Tonio as a harmless fool. Nedda, however, warns Silvio that Tonio could be dangerous, as he has just declared his love for her, and she had to drive him off with a whip. Silvio does not want her to live with these anxieties. He begs her to run away with him, reminding her that Canio never loved her and that she hates the life of a traveling performer. Nedda begs him not to tempt her into ruining her life for a mad dream. Tonio arrives, unseen by the lovers and overhears their conversation. Thrilled at having caught Nedda, Tonio sneaks off. Nedda reassures Silvio and finally gives in to him. As they share a passionate kiss, Tonio arrives with Canio, who can barely contain himself. Silvio urges Nedda to meet him that night. She agrees, and vows to be his forever:  “A sta notte e per sempre tua sarò.”

Canio can no longer stand it. He flies at Silvio, who escapes into the bushes, with Canio in hot pursuit.  Tonio laughs at Nedda’s discomfort. And he keeps laughing even after she tells him that he disgusts her. Canio returns and demands that Nedda tell him her lover’s name. She refuses, even when he threatens her with his dagger. Beppe arrives just in time. He takes the knife away from Canio and reminds him that they must get ready for the show. Nedda rushes off to change into her costume. Tonio promises to keep an eye on the lovers and suggests that the man might come to the show. Beppe and Tonio leave to get ready.

Alone, Canio despairs of being able to perform under such a strain. But then he remembers that he is a clown. He must put on his costume and make-up to please the crowd, and he must laugh, even as his heart is breaking (“Vesti la giubba”).

The show is about to begin. The villagers noisily crowd into the theater, and unnoticed Silvio slips in with them. At last, the curtain goes up. Columbine, played by Nedda, is restlessly waiting for someone, as her husband, Pagliaccio, will be out late. When she hears someone playing a guitar outside, she joyfully goes to the window and sees Harlequin (played by Beppe) serenading her (“O Colombina, il tenero fido Arlecchin”). This is what she has been waiting for. Meanwhile, Taddeo, played by Tonio, peaks through the door and admires Columbine’s beauty. He has brought a chicken for her. He tries to make love to her, but she rebuffs him. Tonio, as Taddeo, goes on and on about Columbine’s chastity.  Harlequin sneaks up on him and kicks him out to the enthusiastic laughter and applause of the crowd.

Columbine and Harlequin sit down to a cozy dinner for two. Harlequin has brought a drug for Columbine to give Pagliaccio so that while he is sleeping they can elope. Taddeo, shaking with terror, breaks in to warn them that Pagliaccio is on the way, and then he hides. Canio, as Pagliaccio, arrives just in time to hear Columbine say almost exactly what Nedda had said earlier to her lover:  “A sta notte . . . E per sempre io sarò tua!” Pulling himself together, he steps onstage to play the cuckolded husband. With difficulty, he accuses Columbine of infidelity, and drags Taddeo out of his hiding place. When Taddeo protests that Columbine is pure, Canio can no longer restrain himself, breaking character,  he demands the name of Nedda’s lover. Desperately trying to stay in character, Nedda reminds him that he is “Pagliaccio.” But Canio tears off his comic wig.  He is not Pagliaccio; he is the man who rescued her from the streets, when she was an orphan dying of hunger, the man who gave her a home and love. The crowd, believing this to be part of the play, comments on how realistic the acting is. Silvio, understanding that it is real, can hardly stand it. Canio goes on, remembering how he had hoped that if Nedda could not love him, she would at least pity him and be kind to him. But now he sees that her soul is deprived, and that she is a worthless whore. The crowd goes wild at this bravura “performance.” But Nedda finds the courage to face him down, and tells him to send her away if he thinks she’s not worthy of him. 

Canio laughs cynically at her clever attempt to get what she really wants – to run away with her lover. He again demands the man’s name. But Nedda tries to defuse the situation by returning to the play. As Columbine, she explains that she was only having dinner with the harmless Harlequin. The audience laughs, but quickly stops when they see the look on Canio’s face. He again demands that she tell him the name. Nedda absolutely refuses, and at last the audience understands that this is real. Nedda tries to run offstage, but Canio grabs her and plunges a knife into her. As she falls dying, she calls out for Silvio. He tries to get to her but is intercepted by Canio, who stabs him in the heart and cries out, “La commedia è finita” (“The comedy is over”).

(© 2003 Linda Cantoni)

Notes
           
Leoncavallo was fond of telling that his libretto was inspired by an actual incident in his childhood, verified by documents in the possession of his father, a judge who had led the criminal investigation into the case: a servant who had taken little Ruggero to see a wandering troupe of comedians at Montalto Uffugo in Calabria was stabbed to death by the jealous head of the troupe, after being caught in a compromising situation with the man’s wife.

However, it is believed that this story belongs in the realm of the anecdote. Research has shown that in fact the action of Pagliacci is based on the play La Femme de Tabarin by Catulle Mendés, premiered in Paris in 1887. Leoncavallo was staying in the French capital during that period, and it is more than likely that he attended one or more of the performances. A further source is the Spanish play Un drama Nuevo by Manuel Tamayo y Baus, premiered in Madrid in 1867, which toured Italy in 1868 and again in 1891.

Ruggero Leoncavallo

Born: March 8, 1857, Naples, Italy    
Died: August 9, 1919, Montecatini, Italy
Italian composer and librettist. Important representative of the realistic movement in Italian opera. Some composers are known for their enormous output in a single genre (Schubert and his songs, for instance) and some are known for their creations in many genres (Mozart is a good example). There are a few composers, however, who have attained great fame on the basis of a single work. Such is the case of Ruggero Leoncavallo and his short opera, Pagliacci.

Leoncavallo received his musical education at the conservatory of his native Naples, going from there to Bologna, where he received a degree in literature. His first opera, I Medici, was written as the first of a Renaissance trilogy, but it was rejected by his publisher and failed when it finally was staged. His next attempt was Pagliacci, for which he wrote both the libretto and the music. The plot came from a real event—a murder investigated by his father, a police magistrate. This realistic backdrop (one of the important components of the realistic style) sets the stage for a compelling and shocking story of a murder committed in front of an audience as part of a commedia dell'arte play. The music is equally compelling, and the protagonist's aria Vesti la giubba has become one of the most popular tenor arias.
Leoncavallo wrote a few moderately successful operas (including a setting of La bohème, written close on the heels of Puccini's), but his fame rests with this one rather short work, which is most often performed paired with another work by a single-hit operatic composer, Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana (1890).

Works

• 10 operas, including Pagliacci ( Clowns, 1892), I Medici (1893), La bohème (1897), and Zazà (1900)
• Other vocal works, including 10 operettas (in French, Italian, and English); songs and choruses, including a Requiem
• Orchestral works, including a symphonic poem and a ballet
• Piano works, including short character pieces and dances

What Was In The World…?

• James Buchanan is inaugurated as the 15th president (March 4). Dred Scott vs. Sanford: Landmark Supreme Court decision holds that Congress does not have the right to ban slavery in states and, furthermore, that slaves are not citizens.

1858       Abraham Lincoln comes to national attention in a series of seven debates with Senator Stephen A. Douglas during Illinois state election campaign.
1859       Abolitionist John Brown and 21 followers capture federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, in an attempt to spark a slave revolt.
1860       Abraham Lincoln is elected president.
1861       Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana secede.  Confederate States of America is established. Jefferson Davis is elected president of the Confederacy. Texas secedes Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the 16th president.

• Civil War: Conflict between the North (the Union) and the South (the Confederacy) over the expansion of slavery into western states. 

1863-      Homestead Act becomes law, allowing settlers to claim land after they have lived on it for five years.
1865-      Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in Washington, DC, and is succeeded by his vice president, Andrew Johnson. Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, prohibiting slavery.
1867-      U.S. acquires Alaska from Russia for the sum of $7.2 million.
1868-      President Johnson is impeached by the House of Representatives, but he is acquitted at his trial in the Senate. Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, defining citizenship.
1869-      Ulysses S. Grant is inaugurated as the 18th president. Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads are joined at Promontory, Utah, creating first transcontinental railroad.

• Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, giving blacks the right to vote.

1871-      Chicago fire kills 300 and leaves 90,000 people homeless.
1872-      Crédit Mobilier scandal breaks, involving several members of Congress.

• Grant’s second inauguration.

1876-      George A. Custer’s regiment is wiped out by Sioux Indians under Sitting Bull at the Little Big Horn River, Mont.
1877-      Rutherford B. Hayes is inaugurated as the 19th president. The first telephone line is built from Boston to Somerville, Mass.; the following year, President Hayes has the first telephone installed in the White House.
1881-      James A. Garfield is inaugurated as the 20th president. He is shot by Charles Guiteau in Washington, DC, and later dies from complications of his wounds in Elberon, N.J. Garfield’s vice president, Chester Alan Arthur, succeeds him in office.
1882-      U.S. adopts standard time.
1885-      Grover Cleveland is inaugurated as the 22nd president
1886-      Statue of Liberty is dedicated; American Federation of Labor is organized.

• Benjamin Harrison is inaugurated as the 23rd president. Oklahoma is opened to settlers.

1890-      National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) is founded, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as president. Sherman Antitrust Act is signed into law, prohibiting commercial monopolies. Last major battle of the Indian Wars occurs at Wounded Knee in South Dakota. In reporting the results of the 1890 census, the Census Bureau announces that the West has been settled and the frontier is closed.

• Ellis Island becomes chief immigration station of the U.S.
• Grover Cleveland is inaugurated a second time, as the 24th president.   He is the only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms.

1896-      Plessy vs. Ferguson Landmark Supreme Court decision holds that racial segregation is constitutional, paving the way for the repressive Jim Crow laws in the South.

• William McKinley is inaugurated as the 25th president.

1898-      U.S. annexes Hawaii by an act of Congress.
1899-      U.S. acquires American Samoa by treaty with Great Britain and Germany.
1900-      Galveston hurricane leaves an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 dead.  According to the census, the nation's population numbers nearly 76 million.
1901-      McKinley's second inauguration.  He is shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz in Buffalo, N.Y., and later dies from his wounds.  He is succeeded by his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt.
1903-      U.S.  acquires Panama Canal Zone.  Wright brothers make the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft at Kitty Hawk, N.C.
1905-      Theodore Roosevelt’s second inauguration.
1906-      San Francisco earthquake leaves 500 dead or missing and destroy about 4 square miles of the city.
1908-      Bureau of Investigation, forerunner of the FBI, is established.

• William Howard Taft is inaugurated as the 27th president. Mrs. Taft has 80 Japanese cherry trees planted along the banks of the Potomac River.
• Woodrow Wilson is inaugurated as the 28th president. Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, providing for the direct election of U.S. senators by popular vote rather than by the state legislatures.

1914-      World War I: U.S. enters World War I, declaring war on Germany and Austria-Hungary, three years after conflict began in 1914. Armistice ending World War I is signed.
1914-      Panama Canal opens to traffic.
1915-      First long distance telephone service, between NewYork and San Francisco, is demonstrated.
1916-      U.S. agrees to purchase Danish West Indies (Virgin Islands) for $25 million (treaty signed) Jeannette Rankin of Montana is the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

• Wilson’s second inauguration. First regular airmail service begins, with one round trip a day between Washington, DC, and New York.
• Worldwide influenza epidemic strikes; by 1920, nearly 20 million are dead. In U.S., 500,000 perish.

Study Questions

Discussion: How a “play within a play” make relationships between characters clear? Does it move the action of one story to the next in the opera? Where else is the practice of using a “play within a play” used? 

Interpersonal Themes

• Faith and Betrayal
• How is betrayal defined in this opera?
• How is faith defined?
• How do you define faith and betrayal?
• Roles in society (who’s in /who’s out)
• Who has the power in this opera? Why? Give examples.
• How is the actor’s role in society similar to that of women? How is it different?
• Women’s status
• If a man is unfaithful to a woman in the world of this opera, is he liable for the same punishment as a woman who is unfaithful to a man?
• What aspects of a women’s status are similar now, to what we see represented in these operas? What is different?

Musical/ Artistic Themes

• How does life influence art?
• What physical environment gave birth to the Pagliacci?
• Out of which social class(es) did the Pagliacci develop?
• Compare the physical environment and social class(es) to that of modern day music and it’s development.

Writing Excise: 

• Have your students write a “play within a play”. Ask them if they see the difficultly in writing one. What methods did they use to help keep the story line clear?
• Have your students imagine the full life of each character. Identify external and internal elements of each character. Make creative, interpretive choices about the life of each character. Have the students write a short story about one character’s day in his/her life.

+ We love to get mail at Toledo Opera! Please encourage your students to draw a picture or write a paragraph describing their favorite character, favorite part of the story, or general impressions of the presentation. Letters and pictures can be sent to:

Education & Outreach Program
Toledo Opera
425 Jefferson Avenue, Suite 601
Toledo, OH  43604-1080

Resources

Opera

• http://sfopera.com/ed_learn_classroom.asp
• http://www.operaworld.com/special/pag1.shtml
• http://www.naxos.com/NewDesign/fintro.files/
  bintro.files/operas/Pagliacci(Actors).htm
• http://www.reginaopera.org/pagliacci.htm
• http://www.jdlh.palo-alto.ca.us/perform/roles/
  pagliacci96.html
• http://www.answers.com/Pagliacci

Composer

• http://www.r-ds.com/opera/resource/pagliacci.htm
• http://www.wwnorton.com/classical/composers/
  leoncavallo.htm
• http://opera.stanford.edu/Leoncavallo/main.html

History

• http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0903595.html
• http://www.infoplease.com/ipea/A0153763.html
• http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0903596.html