Pagliacci

"For the opera, the name of which is done into English as, 'The Players.' Leoncavallo wrote his own libretto. First performed on May 21, 1892, in Milan with Arturo Toscanni as conductor, the work spread rapidly to othr lands, reaching New York two years later.

The opera uses a theatrical device of horary antiquiy, the play within a play, and Leoncavallo's version is a tragic melodrama of realistic vividness.

The events of the opera are dated about 1870, and take place in Calabria on the feast day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. A troupe of strolling players arrives in the village, where they expect to perform that night.

After the orchestral prelude Tonio, the clown, comes before the curtain to sing the famous, "Prologue," in which he explains that actots are subject to the same emotions and passions as spectators, and that the play they are about to enact is to be heard as a true story. How literally this is true even he does not then realize.

As the curtain parts, the mid-afternoon scene shows the arrival of the players, and Canio wittily invites the populace to the night's performance. There is some bantering of Canio, the proprietor of the production and the husband of Nedda, o the effect that Tonio or some one else may be making love to Nedda, while he is drinking with the villagers at the inn. Canio replies meaningfully that n one should try that game with him, and the emotional atmosphere darkens.

Tonio does indeed try the game, but is scornfully repulsed by Nedda. Enraged by her disdain and the whip she brings to bear, he rushes off to getch Canio, who comes on the scene only in time to see his wife's lover disappearing over the wall. Nedda refuses to disclose his name, and amid this tense situation the hour for the play arrives.

With much bustle and excitement the populace assembles for the evening's diversion, which is the age-old theme of Harlequin, Columbine, and Pagliacco. The little play grows too like the experiences of the afternoon, and Canio eventually thows aside the play-acting, and demands with murderous intensity the name of Nedda's lover. In a frenzy of mounting rage and fustration, during which Nedda endeavors to keep the play going, he eventually stabs her, and as Silvo, her lover, rushes forward to her succor, Canio plunges his knife into his heart. Amid the horror of the audience Canio cries out, 'La comedia e finita. ('The comedy is ended.')"

Description by E. Clyde Whitlock, Music editor of the Fort Worth Star Telegram (1947)