Expand
  • Find us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • View Our YouTube Channel
  • Listen on Spotify
  • View our scores on nkoda

English Deutsch
Music Text

Libretto by the composer with German translation by Ludwig Hartmann (I,G)

Scoring

S,2T,2Bar; chorus
3.2.2.bcl.3-4.3.3.1-timp.perc:BD/cyms/tgl/bells-2harp-strings

Abbreviations (PDF)

Publisher

Boosey & Hawkes

Territory
This work is available from Boosey & Hawkes for the world.

Availability

World Premiere
22/05/1892
Teatro dal Verme, Milan
Conductor: Arturo Toscanini
Company: Teatro dal Verme

Roles

CANIO (in the play, 'Pagliaccio'), head of a group of strolling players Tenor
NEDDA (in the play, 'Colombina', Columbine), wife of Canio Soprano
TONIO (in the play 'Taddeo'), a clown Baritone
BEPPE (in the play, 'Arlecchino', Harlequin) Tenor
SILVIO, a villager Baritone
Villagers Chorus
Time and Place

The Feast of the Assumption in about 1865-70, Montalto, in Calabria

Synopsis

A group of strolling players arrives in a Calabrian village and advertises the performance they will put on in the evening. Their leader Canio goes off to have a drink while the stage is set up. During his absence, his wife Nedda finds herself the unwilling object of the attentions of the deformed clown Tonio, whom she violently rejects: he swears vengeance. Once he is gone she is better pleased to meet the villager Silvio, with whom she plans to elope after the performance. Having spied on them, Tonio disappears to find Canio, whom he brings back in time to hear their final avowals. Silvio is chased away unrecognised, but Canio must don his costume and attempt to play the clown. As darkness falls the play begins, an old harlequinade whose situations bear a striking resemblance to the real life relationships of the actors. Canio's entrance finds him increasingly unable to distinguish truth from fiction, and eventually he stabs his wife in earnest, then Silvio, who has come to her aid. Tonio turns to the audience and announces that the comedy is over.

Moods

Dramatic, Tragic

Subjects
Stay updated on the latest composer news and publications