Pagliacci

Related Topics:
Pagliacci,_I

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. Since 1893 it has usually been performed in a so-called "Cav and Pag" double bill with Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana. The title is sometimes incorrectly rendered I pagliacci (The Clowns).

History

Around 1890, when Cavalleria Rusticana premiered, Leoncavallo was a little-known composer. After seeing Cav's success, he decided to write a similar opera. 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 arias, 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 1907, Pagliacci became the first entire opera to be recorded.

Characters and orchestration

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)
Beppe, actor. Arlecchino in the play. (tenor)
Silvio, a villager. (baritone)
Chorus of villagers.

The orchestra consists of 2 flutes, 1 piccolo, 2 oboes, 1 cor anglais, 2 clarinets, 1 bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, 2 harps, timpani, tubular bells, percussion, and strings. Additionally, there is an onstage violin, oboe, trumpet, and bass drum.

Synopsis

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

Prologue

During the overture, the curtain rises. From behind a second curtain, Tonio, dressed as his commedia character Taddeo, addresses the audience. (Si può?... Si può?... Signore! Signori!) He reminds the audience that actors have feelings too, and that the show is about real humans.

Act I

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the commedia troupe enters the village, and the villagers cheer. Canio describes the night's performance: The troubles of Pagliaccio. As Nedda steps down from the cart, Tonio offers his hand, but Canio pushes him aside and helps her down himself. The villagers suggest drinking at the tavern. Canio and Beppe accept, but Tonio stays behind. The villagers tease Canio that Tonio is planning an affair with Nedda. Canio warns everyone that while he may act the foolish husband in the play, in real life he will not tolerate other men making advances to Nedda. Shocked, a villager asks if Canio really suspects her. He says no, and sweetly kisses her on the forehead. As the church bells ring vespers, he and Beppe leave for the tavern, and Nedda is left alone.

Nedda, who is cheating on Canio, is frightened by Canio's vehemence, but the birdsong comforts her. Tonio returns and confesses his love for her, but she laughs. Enraged, Tonio begins to grab her, but she takes a whip, strikes him, and drives him off. Silvio, who is Nedda's lover, comes from the tavern, where he has left Canio and Beppe drinking. He asks Nedda to elope with him after the performance, and though she is afraid, she agrees. Tonio, who has been eavesdropping, leaves to get Canio. They return, and as Silvio escapes, Nedda calls after him, "I will always be yours!"

Canio chases Silvio but does not catch him and does not see his face. He demands that Nedda tell him the name of her lover, but she refuses. He threatens her with a knife, but Beppe disarms him. Beppe insists that they prepare for the performance. Tonio tells Canio that her lover will surely give himself away at the play. Canio is left alone to put on his costume and prepare to laugh. (Vesti la giubba)

Act II

As the crowd arrives, Nedda, costumed as Colombina, collects their money. She whispers a warning to Silvio, and the crowd cheers as the play begins.

Colombina's husband Pagliaccio has gone away until morning, and Taddeo is at the market. She anxiously awaits her lover Arlecchino, who soon serenades her from beneath her window. Taddeo returns and confesses his love, but she mocks him and lets in Arlecchino through the window. He boxes Taddeo's ears and kicks him out of the room, and the audience laughs.

Arlecchino and Colombina dine, and he delivers a sleeping potion. When Pagliaccio returns, she plans to drug him and elope with Arlecchino. Taddeo bursts in, warning that Pagliaccio is suspicious of his wife and is about to return. As Arlecchino escapes through the window, Colombina tells him, "I will always be yours!"

As Canio enters, he hears Nedda and exclaims, "Name of God! Those same words!" He tries to continue the play but loses control and demands to know her lover's name. Nedda, hoping to continue the play, tells him it is Pagliaccio, but he proclaims that he is no clown and he loves her dearly. (No! Pagliaccio non son!) The crowd, impressed by his emotional performance, cheers him.

Nedda, trying again to continue the play, admits that her lover is Arlecchino. Canio, furious, demands the name or her life, but she swears she will never tell him, and the crowd realizes they are not acting. Silvio begins to fight his way toward the stage. Canio, grabbing a knife from the table, stabs Nedda. As she dies she calls, "Help! Silvio!" Canio stabs Silvio and declares, "The commedia is over!"

Notes

Originally, Tonio had the final line, "The commedia is over!" but the line has traditionally been given to Canio. Leoncavallo himself sanctioned this substitution.

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 his voice during a performance and wanted revenge.

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."

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 classic 1960s Northern soul song, "I can't get away" by Bobby Garrett, in the line, "Just like Pagliacci, the clown, sometimes I'm up, sometimes I'm down."

Pagliacci is referenced in the 1970 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."

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

The Western-style song "Pal-Yat-Chee" (the title 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.

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

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."

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 also 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.)

"The Opera", an episode of the American sitcom Seinfeld, features a spoof of Pagliacci, wherein the major characters attend a performance of the opera while "Crazy" Joe Davola disguises himself as Pagliaccio the clown to seek a tragic revenge.

On the TV show Crime Scene Investigation, 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.

On December 11, 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.

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

In an episode entitled Birds of a Feather on the television show The Animated Series, The Penguin is shown attending a performance of Pagliacci and singing rather obnoxiously to "Vesti La Giubba." In addition, the title card of that episode features a scene from Pagliacci itself.

The most recent Batman Animated Series (The Batman) featured an episode in it's second season in which Bruce Wayne not only attends the Opera at the beginning but later on the Joker steals the original Pagliacci costume. The opening scene features Detective Yin's capture by the Joker and features music from the opera as does much of the episode with the Joker singing the aria "Vesti La Giubba" later on. (The Batman, Season 2 Episode 12, Strange Minds First Aired: Saturday September 3, 2005)

Media

Operas by Ruggiero Leoncavallo | Italian-language operas | Verismo operas | Commedia dell'arte | Operas

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