Leoncavallo Opera I Pagliacci

Classical Music / Opera 

Leoncavallo's 'I Pagliacci' in Two Acts   

I Pagliacci, an Italian opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Pagliacci opera plot summary, character list, and other Pagliacci opera information.
   

Ruggero Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci (The Clowns), is a tragic opera that cultivated a new style in the late 19^th-century Italian literary movement called verismo, meaning 'realism' or 'truthful' in the late 19^th-century. I Pagliacci  was the second of the nine operas by Leoncavallo. In a prologue and two acts that span about an hour's time in performance, it tells the story of an acting troupe led by a jealous man who is ultimately driven to murder his actress wife and her lover. Invariably linked with realism along with Leoncavallo's Pagliacci is Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana.       

Composed: 1892
Librtto: Ruggero Leoncavallo
First Performance: Teatro dal Verme, Milan, May 21, 1892
Language: Italian 
Setting: Near Montalto, Calabria
Time: Feast of the Assumption, 1865-70

The 2-act opera carries 19^th-century Italian literary movement verismo or 'realism.' 

Pagliacci Brief Summary

Leoncavallo's opera I Pagliacci ('The Clowns') refers to a small group of strolling players. It follows their loves and jealousies which spill over into their stage performance, climaxing in murder. Even though the character knows that his wife has betrayed him, the poor clown has to go on stage and continue to make people laugh.   


Despite simmering tensions, the performance goes ahead and the performers each take up their characters, all mimicking  their real-life situations. It’s all too much for Canio. Art and reality blur and things quickly spiral out of control, towards Pagliacci’s bloody conclusion.

The Main Characters

Canio, (Pagliaccio), Leader of the troupe (Tenor)

Nedda (Colombina) His wife (Soprano)

Tonio (Taddeo) A player (Baritone)

Beppe (Arleccino) A player (Tenor)

Silvio A villager (Baritone)

Non-Musicians Contemporaries of Mozart

Mozart Contemporaries / Non-Musicians

 

* DAVID  ALLAN, (1749-1832), Scottish history painter, known for portraits and for genre paintings such as Scotch Wedding, which earned him the title 'the Scottish Hoarth.'

* JANE AUSTEN, (1775-1817), English novelist who observed speech and manners with wit and precision as revealed in her characters. Most famous works: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion.

* JOEL BARLOW , (1754-1812), American poet and diplomat, a member of the literary circle the 'Connecticut Wits.' He published an epic entitled The Vision of Columbus in 1787 but is particularly remembered for Hasty Pudding (1796), a celebration of an American dessert.

Mozart Opera Così fan tutte

Classical Music / Operas

 

Così fan tutte, an opera buffa (comic opera), remains one of the four most popular operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. 

 

Wolfgang A. Mozart wrote some 20 operas. Four of them have been extremely famous on stage and record. Aside from Cosi fan tutte, the other three are: The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze Figaro), Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte).

Cosi fan tutte is a comic (opera buffa) with an unusual title. Cosi means "in this way" or "like this"; fan means "do"; and tutte means the Italian feminine version for "all".  So the title can be translated as "In this way do all (women)" or "Like this do all (women)." Or it can even be "Women are all Alike."  It's a farce, a fun opera, nevertheless, the genius Mozart wrote some of his great music.      

This opera was commissioned to Mozart by Emperor Josef II subtitled The School for Lovers.

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Libretto in Italian by Lorenzo da Ponte. 

First performed: Burgtheater, Vienna, January 26 (or 28), 1790, conducted by Mozart himself.

Setting:  Naples during the 18^th century. It is in two Acts, approximately two hours and thirty minutes.

The Characters:

Fiordiligi and Dorabella   Two sisters from Ferrara   (Both Sopranos)

Despina   The sisters'  maid   (Soprano)

Ferrando  An officer in love with Dorabella   (Tenor)

Guglielmo   An officer in love with Fiordiligi   (Baritone)

Don Alfonso   An elderly philosopher   (Baritone)

Cosi fan tutte is said to have been composed by Mozart at the height of his fame. Here's my favourite quote which  I've taken from The Harrap Opera Guide by Sir Alexander Morley, London, 1970, in my readings: "The artificial comedy, verging at times on the farcical, is set to apt and witty music, with a strong element of parody but also of a sentimentality which is constantly spilling over into genuine and touching sentiment."   

Mozart's music for Cosi consists of an overture, formal arias, symmetrical ensembles of various combination of the characters with a delightful presence, lively recitatives, and full finales.  

             

Brief Synopsis:

Don Alfonso, an old philosopher and cynic, is determined to prove to his two young friends, Guglielmo and Ferrando, that their fiancées, Fiordiligi and Dorabella, are not to be trusted like any other woman. With the help of Despina, the ladies' maid, Alfonso lays his plot. First he tells them that as officers, their lovers have been called up on duty; and as a part of the old man's plan, he introduces the sisters to two Albanians, who are, in fact, Guglielmo and Ferrando disguised. After inner conflicts the two women succumb to the advances of the "Albanians," forcing Guglielmo and Ferrando to concede defeat. However, Don Alfonso reveals the plot to the two deceived ladies and they are reconciled with their original lovers.  

Video Credit:

Mozart's Così Fan Tutte Complete opera with English Subtitles, 1992. France 

Amanda Roocroft - Fiordiligi, Rosa Mannion - Dorabella, Rodney Gilfry - Guglielmo, Rainer Trost - Ferrando,  Eirian James - Despina,  Claudio Nicolai - Don Alfonso.  Monteverdi Choir.  English Baroque Soloists .  John Eliot Gardiner - Conductor,  Peter Mumford - Director. (Youtube, uploaded by Aimee. Accessed 25 January 2018.)  

 

Suggested Reading:

Cosi fan Tutte in the Mirror: Eternal truths on being human. A Musical Vision. Accessed January 26, 2016.   

 

Trivia:   

A sort of a joke from the jovial Mozart. The role of Fiordiligi in Cosi was created for Adriana Ferraresi, Da Ponte's mistress, who was reputed to be arrogant and ugly. Mozart wrote her a difficult aria, full of vocal leaps - in Cosi fan tutte - aria "Come scoglio".  Mozart was banking on Ferraresi's tendency to lower her chin on the low notes and throw back her head on the high notes, making her head bob back and forth, just like a  chicken.  

I'm quoting from my Course Guidebook: Mozart - His Life and Music, p.35, by Prof. Robert Greenberg. It's from his lecture 8: The Last Years.  This course is one of the three classical music courses I studied under him: from The Great Course / The Teaching Company.  Actually, the first time I read about this jolly-humoured  'episode' of our Wunderkind was in fact, from the book 'The Operas of Mozart' written by William Mann, English Music Critic. His original book was published in 1977, the copy I read was in paperback version, 1986.  / Tel, 4 May 2007.  

 

Further suggested reading: 

 

Mozart's Fiordiligi: Adriana Ferrarese del Bene.  Published online by Cambridge University Press (27 August 2008, pp. 199-214). Written by Patricia Lewy Gidwitz. (Journal: Cambridge Opera Journal / Volume 8 / Issue 3/ Print publication: Nov 1996

 

 

Resources: 

Various books in my private collection of Mozart books, and other classical music reference materials, including opera books of  Da Capo and Batta. Also, from Course Guidebooks, when I was a student at The Teaching Company / The Great Courses.  "Great Masters: Mozart - His Life and Music." / Tel


 

(c) May 4, 2007.  Updated January 27, 2010.  Tel. Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved.