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• Major Operas
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

tell him and Canio stabs her. She calls for Silvio, who rushes to the stage and is also killed. Canio announces that ‘the comedy is over’. Personalities | Ruggero Leoncavallo | Turn of the Century | Opera ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Late Romantic

(Rood-jâ’-ro La-on-ka-val’-lo) 1858–1919 Italian composer Leoncavallo’s masterpiece was the one-act opera Pagliacci (‘Clowns’, 1892), for which he wrote the libretto, based on an incident in the Italian town where his father was a judge. In its realistic subject and passionately expressive style, it embodies the verismo movement pioneered by Mascagni, with whose Cavalleria rusticana (‘Rustic Chivalry’, 1890) it is ...

• Personalities
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

1857–1919, Italian Leoncavallo was born and studied in Naples. His first opera, Chatterton (1876), written to a libretto by himself, did not initially procure any performances and, in spite of encouragement from his family, Leoncavallo did not appear to be going far in the world of opera. However, with the support of the baritone Victor ...

• Instruments
• Stringed

composed solo works for it. In spite of a lull during the early nineteenth century, the mandolin soon regained popularity. Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) used it in Otello (1884–86), Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857–1919) in Pagliacci (1892) and Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) used it his seventh and eighth symphonies and in Das Lied von der Erde (1907). The Modern Mandolin By the beginning of ...

• Major Operas
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

‘The Bohemian Life’ Puccini’s first work following the overwhelming triumph of Manon Lescaut was immediately beset by problems. Leoncavallo had already begun preparations on the same scenario and, on hearing of Puccini’s choice of subject, publicly berated his rival and friend and claimed priority over the project. Puccini responded calmly by declaring that both composers should go to work ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Late Romantic

cigarette’ and ‘La sieste’. Recommended Recording: Symphonie espagnole, op. 21, Vadim Repin, London SO (cond) Kent Nagano (Erato) Introduction | Late Romantic | Classical Personalities | Ruggero Leoncavallo | Late Romantic | Classical ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Instrumentalist
• Late Romantic

(Oi’-gan Dal’-ber) 1864–1932 German pianist and composer Born in Glasgow to a ballet composer, at 17 D’Albert moved to Vienna, befriending the great Wagner conductors Richter and Bülow, as well as Brahms and Liszt, with whom he studied. Widely admired as a piano virtuoso (several of his six wives were noted musicians), D’Albert was increasingly drawn to operatic composition. ...

• Personalities
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

well as the French Impressionists. Introduction | Turn of the Century | Opera Major Operas | Die lustige Witwe by Franz Lehár | Turn of the Century Personalities | Ruggero Leoncavallo | Turn of the Century | Opera Techniques | Operetta | Turn of the Century | Opera Techniques | Symbolism or Impressionism ? | Turn of the Century | Opera ...

• Personalities
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

1884–1970, Italian Librettist Forzano found his métier in writing and was a follower of Arrigo Boito. Forzano also worked with several other leading Italian composers, particularly those representative of verismo such as Mascagni and Leoncavallo. Forzano also worked as a stage director, producing Puccini’s Turandot in 1926. Introduction | Turn of the Century | Opera Personalities | Mary ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Late Romantic

of portraying powerful complex emotions. The style continued in Mascagni’s dozen or so less well-known operas including Iris (1898), L’amico Fritz (1905) and Nerone (1935), as well as Pagliacci by Leoncavallo, often given as a companion piece to Cavalleria, and the operas of Puccini. Recommended Recording: Cavalleria rusticana, La Scala Chorus and Orchestra (cond) Herbert von Karajan (Deutsche ...

• Personalities
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

much admired by Verdi, who chose him to create the first Iago in 1887 and the first Falstaff in 1893. Maurel was also instrumental in the career of Ruggero Leoncavallo, introducing the young composer to the publisher Ricordi. He created the role of Tonio for Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci in 1892. Maurel also worked as a director, teacher and designer. ...

• Opera
• High Romantic

In 1891, when the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) wrote his famous words ‘Life imitates art far more than art imitates life’, he had somehow managed to overlook the artistic realities of the late nineteenth century. By that time, after some 50 years of the High Romantic era, music and opera had brought real life on stage and ...

• Opera
• Turn of the Century

The schools of naturalism and realism had an immediate effect in Italy. With scant literary tradition to draw on from this period, Italian writers in the second half of the nineteenth century seized upon Zola’s beliefs as a potent dramatic source. The style they developed came to be known as verismo and was exemplified by writers such as Giovanni Verga ...

• Stage & Scene
• Early & Middle Baroque
• Opera

lent themselves easily to operatic treatment and were later turned into operas. The commedia characters and type of plot were directly translated to opera in Pagliacci (‘Clowns’, 1892) by Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857–1919). Stage & Scene | The Visual Aspect | Late Baroque | Opera ...

• Styles & Forms
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

of subject matter, the strongest trend was for exotic locations. The counter-fashion for strong local colour, begun by the veristic writings of Giovanni Verga and then Mascagni and Leoncavallo, provided a welcome sideline but La fanciulla del West (1910), Madama Butterfly (1904), Salome (1905), Elektra (1909) and even Der Rosenkavalier (1911) testify to the continued allure of unfamiliar ...