Pagliacci
Ruggiero Leoncavallo
Before the opera begins, the clown Tonio steps before the curtain
to say that the author has written about actors, who know the
same joys and sorrows as other people.
PART I. Southern
Italy, around 1865-70. Excited villagers mill about as a small
theatrical road company arrives at the outskirts of a Calabrian
town. Canio, head of the troupe, describes that night's offering,
and when someone jokingly suggests that the hunchback Tonio is
secretly enamoured of his young wife, Canio warns he will
tolerate no flirting with Nedda. As vesper bells call the women
to church, the men go to the tavern, leaving Nedda alone.
Disturbed by her husband's vehemence and suspicious glances, she
envies the freedom of the birds soaring overhead. Tonio appears
and indeed tries to make love to her, but she scorns him.
Enraged, he grabs her, and she lashes out with a whip, getting
rid of him but inspiring an oath of vengeance. Nedda in fact does
have a lover — Silvio, who now arrives and persuades her to
run away with him at midnight. But Tonio, who has seen them,
hurries off to tell Canio. Before long the jealous husband bursts
in on the guilty pair. Silvio escapes, and Nedda refuses to
identify him, even when threatened with a knife. Beppe, another
player, has to restrain Canio, and Tonio advises him to wait
until evening to catch Nedda's lover. Alone, Canio sobs that he
must play the clown though his heart is breaking.
PART II. The villagers,
Silvio among them, assemble to see the play Pagliaccio e
Colombina. In the absence of her husband, Pagliaccio (played by
Canio), Colombina (Nedda) is serenaded by her lover Arlecchino
(Beppe), who dismisses her buffoonish servant, Taddeo (Tonio).
The sweethearts dine together and plot to poison Pagliaccio, who
soon arrives; Arlecchino slips out the window. With pointed
malice, Taddeo assures Pagliaccio of his wife's innocence, firing
Canio's real-life jealousy. Forgetting the script, he demands
that Nedda reveal her lover's name. She tries to continue with
the play, the audience applauding the realism of the
"acting." Maddened by her defiance, Canio stabs Nedda
and then Silvio, who has rushed forward from the crowd to help
her. Canio cries out that the comedy is ended.