Pagliacci Information
Pagliacci is an Italian opera with a prologue and two acts. Ruggero Leoncavallo wrote both the music and the words to the story. Actor and commedia dell'arte company leader Canio kills his wife Nedda and Silvio, who was her boyfriend, while the opera is in progress.
On May 21, 1892, under Arturo Toscanini's direction, Pagliacci had its world debut at Milan's Teatro Dal Verme. The cast included Adelina Stehle as Nedda, Fiorello Giraud as Canio, Victor Maurel as Tonio, and Mario Ancona as Silvio.
The opera was performed in London (with Nellie Melba as Nedda) and New York (with Agostino Montegriffo as Canio) shortly after its Italian debut (June 15, 1893). One of the composer's few operas, Pagliacci, is still often staged today.
When Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana debuted in 1890, Leoncavallo was a composer hardly recognized. In reaction to Mascagni's triumph, Leoncavallo created a one-act opera in the verismo style.
An incident from Leoncavallo's upbringing inspired Pagliacci: in 1865, family servant Gaetano Scavello was murdered by Gaetano D'Alessandro, with brother Luigi serving as an accomplice.
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