Ruggero Leoncavallo

Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857–1919) was born in Naples and studied at its conservatory, and he spent years as a struggling musician, working as a pianist and teacher in Egypt, Paris and elsewhere, before a single work changed his life. Inspired by the success of Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana in 1890, he quickly wrote the words and music of Pagliacci; its premiere in Milan in 1892, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, made it an immediate international hit, and it has been one of the most performed operas in the world ever since. An accomplished writer, Leoncavallo also wrote libretti for others, and he contributed to the early libretto of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut. His own version of La bohème (1897) was overshadowed by Puccini’s opera on the same subject, and none of his later works achieved lasting success; but Pagliacci alone guarantees his place in the history of opera.