Pagliacci

Pagliacci (Clowns) is an opera in two acts written and composed by Ruggiero Leoncavallo. It is the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'Arte troupe. It premiered in Milan in 1892, and it is Leoncavallo's only successful opera. It is still part of the standard operatic repertory, and since 1893 it has been performed as a double bill with Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana.

The opera is sometimes referred to (incorrectly) as I pagliacci.

History

Around 1890, when Cavalleria Rusticana premiered, Leoncavallo was a little-known composer. After seeing Cav's success, he decided to write an opera with a similar form. It was to be one act long and composed in the verismo style. Most modern-day critics say that the libretto was inspired by an 1887 play of Catulle Mendès entitled La Femme de Tabarin. Leoncavallo was living in Paris at the time of the premiere, and it is likely that he saw the play.

However, Leoncavallo insisted that the plot of the opera was based on a true story he had witnessed as a child. He claimed that a servant had taken him to a commedia performance in which the events of the opera had actually occurred. He also claimed that his father, who was a judge, had led the criminal investigation, and that he had documents supporting these claims. None of this evidence has ever appeared, and most critics believe that Leoncavallo was trying to make the opera seem more realistic.

Pagliacci was an instant success and it remains popular today. It contains one of opera's most famous and popular operas, Recitar! ... Vesti la giubba. (To perform! ... Put on the costume) One of Enrico Caruso's recordings of Vesti la giubba was the first record to sell one million copies. In 1905, Pagliacci became the first entire opera to be recorded.

Characters

The main characters are actors in a travelling commedia dell'Arte troupe.

• Canio, head of the troupe. Pagliaccio in the play. (Tenor)
• Nedda, Canio's wife. Colombina in the play. (Soprano)
• Tonio, the fool. Taddeo in the play. (Baritone)
• Peppe, actor. Arlecchino in the play. (Tenor)
• Silvio, a villager. (Baritone)
• Chorus of villagers.

Synopsis

The story is set in Calabria, near Montalto, on the Feast of the Assumption, between 1865 and 1870.

Act I

Near the village. The curtain ascends during the overture, and from behind a second curtain Tonio appears as Prologue.

(Tonio: "A word allow me!")

He explains the character of the performance in a serious manner as an actual occurrence, and the performance begins.

The primitive theatre of the village comedians is erected and the actors parade in fantastic costumes to the great delight of the villagers.

(Chorus: "This way they come, with fife and drum.")

Silvio, who resides in the village, offers his hand to assist Nedda in alighting, but is assaulted by Canio, who boxes his ears, swearing vengeance. The peasants ask the actors to drink with them. Canio and Beppe accept, while Tonio remains with Nedda. Amid the good-natured raillery of the villagers Canio declares solemnly that as clown he will take part in any joke, but will resent any insult to his honour as a husband. The angelus is heard.

(Chorus: "Ding-dong! The shadows fall!")

He plainly evinces his fiery temperament.

(Canio: "Such a game is hardly worth the playing.")

Nedda, who is untrue to her husband, trembles at the words of Canio

(Nedda: "How fierce he looked")

...to conceal her fears, she sings.

(Nedda: "As the songbirds soar.")

The ugly Tonio remains and becomes offensive in his attentions to Nedda, whereupon she strikes him with a whip, which drives him to frenzy.

(Tonio: "I know you hate me.")

He departs, swearing revenge.

Silvio approaches Nedda; they love each other

(Silvio: "Why hast thou taught me?"), and Silvio wins Nedda through the ardour of his love and induces her to fly with him at night. Tonio, who has been listening to their conversation, calls Canio and Beppe, and with great difficulty, Silvio escapes, unrecognised by the pursuing clown. Returning, Canio, dagger in hand, demands from Nedda the name of her lover. Tonio whispers that the lover will surely attend the performance and will then be detected. Canio in despair prepares for the performance.

(Canio: "To jest with my heart maddened with sorrow.")

Act II

The comedy begins before the assembled crowd. Columbine, represented by Nedda, collects the money, and warns Silvio, who is present. The play begins.

(Arlecchino: "O Columbine.")

Canio stumbles confusedly through his part, and again demands from Nedda the name of her seducer. When she replies lightly, hoping to disarm him

(Nedda: "I never knew you were so witty")

...he seizes a knife from the table, and stabs Nedda, who tries to escape in the crowd. As Silvio comes to her aid, Canio recognises him, and plunges the knife in his heart.

(Canio: "No clown am I, but a man!")

All are filled with horror and dismay, and stand irresolute, not knowing what to do. Tonio, coming forward, gravely dismisses the audience, saying with grim cynicism, "The comedy is finished" ("La commedia è finita").

Noted arias

• Prologue ("Si può? Signore! Signori!") (Tonio)
• "Un tal gioco" (Canio)
• "Stridono lassu" (Nedda)
• "Nedda! Silvio, a Quest'ora" (Silvio, Nedda)
• "Vesti la giubba" (Canio)
• "Ohe! Ohe! Presto!" (Chorus)
• "O Colombina" (Beppe)
• "No, Pagliaccio Non Son" (Canio)

Pagliacci in popular culture

• During the 1928-1930 Broadway run of the Marx Brothers' last full stage play, Animal Crackers, Groucho Marx would recite a self-penned poem (set to music) during a scene change. The poem is as close to a philosophy on life as Groucho Marx ever wrote, even if it is mostly made up of non-sequiters and puns. The poem concludes with the line, "So be a real life Pagliacc' and laugh, clown, laugh". The poem is not included in the 1930 film version of Animal Crackers, but is recited on Groucho's 1974 comedy album An Evening With Groucho, and is reprinted in Robert S. Bader's collection, Groucho Marx: and Other Short Stories and Tall Tales.

• The 1928 American silent film Laugh, Clown, Laugh starring Lon Chaney was a variation on Pagliacci, though it did not use the actual plot.

• In the August 14, 1939, episode of the Shadow, "The Tenor With a Broke Voice", the plot revolved around murders occurring during a production of Pagliacci. The killer turned out to be the former star of the production, who lost their voice during a performance and wanted revenge.

• The 1954 song Mr. Sandman contains the line, "Give him a lonely heart like Pagliacci, and lots of wavy hair like Liberace."

• The January 26, 1966, episode of Batman, "The Joker is Wild", contained a scene in which the Joker appeared in a performance of Pagliacci. This scene contained the cliffhanger of the episode, and so was continued on the next episode, "Batman is Riled."

• Pagliacci is referenced in the 1967 song, The Tears of a Clown by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles in the line, "Just like Pagliacci did, I try to keep my sadness hid". While Smokey Robinson wrote the lyrics, it was Stevie Wonder who wrote the music, giving the instrumental track to Smokey as a present at the 1966 Motown Records Christmas party.

• Many older Americans might still associate "Recitar/Vesti la giubba" with a Rice Krispies commercial that aired in the 1960s.

• The Western-style song "Pal-Yat-Chee", a pseudo-phonetic transliteration of the Italian word "Pagliacci", containing a piece of the aria "Ridi, Pagliaccio / ...", is performed by Eddie Maxwell and Spike Jones on the 1971 album Spike Jones Is Murdering the Classics. The song ends with a burp sound.

• Engelbert Humperdinck (singer) has recorded a song entitled "When There's No You". In addition to being a song about a lost love, that song clearly uses the melody from "Vesti la giubba".

• The opening line of Queen's 1984 single "It's A Hard Life" ("I don't want my freedom / There's no reason for living / With a broken heart") is sung to the melody of the aria's "Ridi, Pagliaccio / Sul tuo amore infranto!" (the melody deviates at the "With a broken heart" part, and then segues into the main song).

• In the 1987 film The Untouchables, Al Capone (played by Robert DeNiro), is attending a performance of the opera, openly crying, when his henchman, Frank Nitti, enters and tells him that he has killed Chicago Police Officer Jim Malone. Capone then stops crying and begins to quietly laugh.

• Pagliacci is mentioned in a 1989 song, Your Bozo's Back Again, by Ray Stevens. The song compares the singer to a true fool, a clown, since he constantly returns to an unfaithful lover. The line states: "I might as well wear grease paint, the way I play my part, but like Pagliacci, I'm playing with a real, live broken heart".

• An episode of the American sitcom Seinfeld features a spoof of Pagliacci, with the major characters attending a performance of the opera while a deranged minor character disguises himself as Pagliaccio the clown to seek a tragic revenge.

• In 1986, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' graphic novel Watchmen was first published. One of the book's characters, Rorschach, writes in his journal of a joke he once heard involving Pagliacci, in response to the death of another character, The Comedian. The joke consists of a man going to a doctor and complaining of depression. The doctor tells him to go to the show of the "great clown Pagliacci" in order to cheer him up. However, the man breaks down and cries, telling the doctor that he, in fact, is the clown Pagliacci. (Coming full circle with these pop culture Pagliacci references, this quote reflects the oft-repeated lament that the perenially-depressed Groucho Marx was the only person in the world who didn't have Groucho Marx to cheer him up, as can be heard in the documentary The Unknown Marx Brothers, among other places.)

• On December 11th, 2005, The Simpsons premiered a new episode which consisted of the Simpson family going to Italy, and after a twist of events, ending up on stage for a Pagliacci show at the Colosseum, with Sideshow Bob, along with his wife and son, trying to kill the whole family as part of the act.

• In the 1976 film The Ritz, a man briefly sings "Vesti la giubba" in costume as part of the titular bathhouse's talent show.

• In the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation TV show, in the Episode 3x01 Revenge Is Best Served Cold, Grissom is listening to "Vesti la giuba" while working and Sara Sidle comes into his office.

• In the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, in the Episode 1x06 The Dabba Don, Spyro sings "Vesti La Giubba" as a parody of The Godfather movie.

• A new opera will be made by Prasert Nagara and it is entitled The Pagliaccers. It is in five acts, a prologue, thirteen circus acts, six intermezzi and three epilogues. Canio is changed to Tito Beppi, Nedda to Simonetta, Beppe to Simon and Silvio to Luigi Ravelli. The character of Tonio is omitted. The characters' names are named after characters from the silent film, Laugh, Clown, Laugh, though it uses materials from Cirque du Soleil. It features Ruggero Leoncavallo as a character of the second epilogue.

• Billie Holiday sang a song entitled "The Masquerade is Over" which included the lyrics, "I guess I'll have to play Pagliacci and get myself a clown's disguise / And learn to laugh like Pagliacci with tears in my eyes."