RUGGERO LEONCAVALLO (MARCH 8, 1857/58, NAPLES — AUG. 9,
1919, MONTECATINI TERME, NEAR FLORENCE)
Neapolitan opera composer
whose fame rests on the opera Pagliacci, which, with Pietro Mascagni’s
Cavalleria Rusticana (1890), represented a reaction against Richard Wagner and
against Romantic Italian opera; both works substituted for the quasi-historical
plot a sensational story from everyday life. Leoncavallo studied at the Naples
Conservatory and subsequently supported himself by giving café concerts and
piano and singing lessons. His first operas, Chatterton (after Alfred de Vigny)
and I Medici (first part of a projected trilogy inspired by the Italian Renaissance),
failed to attract attention. He followed them with Pagliacci, composed in the
verismo, or realistic, style of Mascagni. Produced in Milan in 1892, it was an
immediate success. His La Bohème (1897) suffered from comparison with Giacomo
Puccini’s La Bohème. Zazà (1900) was more successful, but Der Roland (1904),
commissioned by Wilhelm II to glorify the Hohenzollerns, was a failure. A
number of later works achieved passing success. For most of his operas
Leoncavallo was his own librettist and showed a distinct literary ability and a
flair for theatrical effect.
TRACKLIST
1020 LEONCAVALLO – Intermezzo
from the Opera “I Pagliacci”
1022 LEONCAVALLO – Prelude to
the Opera “I Medici”
1023 LEONCAVALLO – Musetta’s
Waltz Song fr Opera “La Boheme”
1024 LEONCAVALLO – Romance, a
1025 LEONCAVALLO – Au bord du
lac (On the Lake Shore)
1026 LEONCAVALLO – Flirt Waltz
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