Pagliacci, Opera by R. Leoncavallo
Pagliacci was Ruggero Leoncavallo's debut opera when it was first produced for the Italian stage at Milan's Teatro Dal Verme on 21 May 1892. Popular ever since, Pagliacci is, once more, being performed at Teatro Malibran in Venice in a staging that features the highly respected La Fenice Orchestra and Choir. With a prologue and two acts, Leoncavallo wrote both the libretto and the music for the opera, which was met with mixed critical reception but widespread approval among theatregoers following its premiere.
In Pagliacci, the main characters are members of a touring group of artistes. They play parts based on commedia dell’arte that would have been well-known to audiences in Italy at the time. For example, the company's principal, Canio, takes on the role of Pagliaccio, a clown, when the company performs. His wife, Nedda, plays Colombina, Pagliaccio's wife, who – tellingly, it turns out – is in love with another man. What Leoncavallo presents to audiences, therefore, is a double-story, the narrative of the performance the troupe puts on as well as the opera's plot itself. As they perform their play, we see a seemingly ever-deepening level of mistrust and despair from not only the commedia dell’arte characters but the actors who portray them.
The scene is set for a truly dramatic performance from the outset. There is disharmony among the theatrical company. Although Canio, who is trusting and loyal, doesn't know it, gossip is rife about Nedda's supposed extra-marital infidelities. Suspicion has fallen on Tonio, the man who plays the part of Taddeo, Colombina's servant in the play. Everyone, including the local villagers, seems to believe that Tonio, who is in fact in love with Nedda in real life, is her lover. Matters take a significant turn for the worse when Canio spots what he thinks is a male figure sneaking away from his wife's quarters. With little time to spare, the characters must take to the stage in their own play as they attempt to resolve matters in the most public of ways. In the end, there is a dramatic conclusion – but does Canio ever find out the whole truth?
Leoncavallo established himself on the Italian opera scene with his verismo style of writing, something he all but mastered with Pagliacci. Indeed, it is his deliberate blurring of performance and reality that makes the opera still so appealing to modern theatregoers. As opera fans who attend this staging at Venice's Malibran Theatre will undoubtedly agree, this compelling disorientation more than adequately demonstrates Leoncavallo's virtuosity in dramatic storytelling.