Leoncavallo: I Pagliacci

Leoncavalli’s Pagliacci remains one of his unique masterworks.

Around 1890, when Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana premiered, Leoncavallo was a little-known composer. After seeing its success, he decided to write an opera in response, in one act and composed in the verismo style. Leoncavallo claimed that he took the inspiration for the story of Pagliacci from a real-life incident from his childhood.This was a murder in 1865, where the victim was a Leoncavallo family servant, Gaetano Scavello. The murderer was Gaetano D’Alessandro, with Luigi D’Alessandro, Gaetano’s brother, as an accomplice to the crime. This incident resulted from a series of perceived romantic entanglements involving Scavello, Luigi D’Alessandro, and a village girl with whom both men were infatuated.Leoncavallo’ father, a judge, was the presiding magistrate over the criminal investigation.

Leoncavallo originally titled his story Il pagliaccio (The Clown). However, the baritone Victor Maurel, who was cast as the first Tonio, requested that Leoncavallo change the title from the singular Il pagliaccio to the plural Pagliacci, to broaden dramatic interest away from Canio alone to include Tonio (his own role).

Even as recently as the 1970s it was by no means certain that the biggest German opera houses would perform the works in their repertory in their original language. When well-known singers made guest appearances in mainstream operas, it was in no way exceptional for the performance to be sung in more than one language. But this was not the case in the meticulously rehearsed first night of the two most famous one-act Italian operas, Mascagni’s 'Cavalleria rusticana' and Leoncavallo’s 'Pagliacci', which opened at the Munich National Theatre on Christmas Day 1978.

Under Nello Santi’s gripping and thrilling conducting, the Bavarian State Opera’s cast was made up of a veritable galaxy of star performers: great names, but also singers able to work together as a close-knit ensemble. Singing Santuzza for the first time, Leonie Rysanek discovered a new signature role admirably suited to her expressive abilities and to a voice whose upper register was as radiant as ever. Opposite her was Plácido Domingo, who in this production essayed the leading tenor roles in both these operas: with his bronze timbre, he was quite the impulsive predator and seducer as Turiddu, while as Canio he was alarmingly impulsive in his raging fury as the cuckolded husband. Teresa Stratas and Wolfgang Brendel were likewise ideal casting as Nedda and Silvio in Pagliacci, both of them excellent at stoking the fires of jealousy. Domingo was not the only singer to appear in both works. So, too, did Benito di Bella as the carrier Alfio and as an artful Tonio. With his sturdy baritone he brought both figures to vibrant life in finely etched performances. The same is true of two singers in smaller roles, both of them tried and tested in the refining fires of Bayreuth: the legendary Astrid Varnay as Mamma Lucia and Norbert Orth, later to make a name for himself as a heldentenor, as Beppe. Giancarlo del Monaco’s production remained in the Munich repertoire for decades, the spectacular success of its first night due in no small measure to the Chorus of the Bavarian State Opera, which slipped effortlessly into the roles of members of a village community in both works, investing their characters with a vivid vocal and dramatic profile.

ORFEO’s live recording on CD not only documents this first night, it once again allows listeners to share in the excitement of the occasion.

In Cavalleria Rusticana, the first half of opera’s most famous double feature, Eileen Farrell sings the role of the ill-fated Santuzza in what would be her last Met broadcast

Pagliacci stars Franco Corelli as Canio, the clown who must make his audience laugh while he himself is consumed with despair, in what would be the famous tenor’s only Met broadcast performance in the role

Nello Santi conducts the Met orchestra and chorus

2 CDs taken from the April 11, 1964 live performance

This historical recording includes versions of Pagliacci both in French and Italian, recorded in the same session.

This recording was made by Columbia in 1930, as part of a series under the musical direction of Lorenzo Molajoli with the chorus and orchestra of La Scala. The soloists were also performers at La Scala and were signed up to Columbia.