Ruggiero Leoncavallo - the famous Italian composer, who laid the foundation for the genre of "verismo" in music. He was one of the first to make ordinary people the heroes of his works. The general public is known mainly as the author of the opera "Pagliacci".
Composer Biography
Leoncavallo was born on April 23, 1857 in Naples, Italy. His father headed the local Tribunal, and his mother came from an artistic family. At eight years old, the boy entered the Conservatory of San Pietro a Mayela, which he graduated at sixteen. His teachers were such prominent musicians as Serrao, Rossi and Cesi.
Seriously carried away by philology, the future composer received a doctorate in literature from the University of Bologna. Later, this knowledge was very useful to him in composing the libretto, which he preferred to write himself.
Ruggiero Leoncavallo taught singing in Italy and beyond. He received great public acclaim as a pianist-accompanist. Audio recordings of his performances with the great tenor Enrico Caruso have survived to this day. Together they traveled with concerts throughout Europe. In 1877, the composer met Wagner and, impressed by this acquaintance, conceived his first opera.
In the biography of Ruggiero Leoncavallo, there were dizzying success, and crushing failures. He served as a musician in the Egyptian court, but after the English occupation he had to flee to France, disguised as an Arab. In Marseille, the musician was forced to interrupt by casual earnings: he played in a cafe, wrote songs for a cabaret and gave singing lessons.
But after some time, Leoncavallo still returned to his homeland. And there he was waiting for real success on the opera stage.
Creativity before the "Pagliacci"
Under the strong influence of Wagner, Leoncavallo writes the opera Chatterton, which was not successful. And then he undertakes a large-scale epic poem "Twilight" in three parts. In this work, the composer refers to the Renaissance with its titans of thought, heroic dramas and passions. But the publisher did not accept his manuscript.
After this failure, Ruggiero Leoncavallo tries his hand in a new musical style for him - verismo. Just at the time when the composer was returning from France to Italy, Mascagni's opera "Country Honor" was being performed with incredible success in the theater. She tells about ordinary people and their turbulent passions. The composer was deeply shocked by what he saw on stage and conceived the opera, which became his best creation.
Verism in music
Verism (from Italian - true, true) - a direction in art that arose in the 90s of the XIX century. The authors took stories from the lives of contemporaries, ordinary people, and revealed them with great sincerity and simplicity. The operas in this style were written in small size and deliberately theatrical, with the eyeballs immediately before the catastrophe and the bloody finale.
The music of the verists was also simple and accessible. It is characterized by small ariosos with a bright, catchy melody. Verdi and Carmen Bizet's operas are written in this style. The "Pagliacci" by Ruggiero Leoncavallo also belong to him.
The story of the "Pagliacci"
The plot was based on a tragic story that happened when Ruggiero was still a child. Many years ago, in the court where his father worked, the case of an artist of a wandering theater was considered. He, in a fit of jealousy, killed his wife on stage during the performance.
This story deeply shocked Ruggiero Leoncavallo, and he embodied it with the drama and conciseness inherent in verismo. It took only five months to create the music and the libretto. The premiere took place in Milan with resounding success, and the opera immediately gained worldwide fame. Leoncavallo went on tour as a conductor of "Payatsev" in Europe and America.
Musical and dramatic features
In the opera Leoncavallo, the tragedy of life and death unfolds rapidly and dynamically - within one day. The composer uses the "scene on stage" technique: at the same time as the heroes' drama, there is a performance of a wandering booth, the contrast with which gives special emphasis to the main narrative.
Leoncavallo gives all the characters vivid and memorable musical themes that reveal their character traits. Solo parts and duets are emotionally saturated and sincere, which gives dramatic scenes a special credibility.
Orchestra parts play a supporting role. But the composer masterfully used his expressive means to convey the atmosphere of a peaceful Italian village and a fun peasant fair.
Subsequent Creativity
Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci has become the pinnacle of the composer's creative career. Success and popular recognition inspired him, but subsequent works did not find such a stormy response from the public.
Among other operas, one can single out Bohemia, which describes the life of the Latin Quarter, and Zaza, which the author himself loved. Leoncavallo created the opera Gypsies, inspired by the poem of A. Pushkin.
At the end of his life, the composer set about the idea of writing a national drama, severe and tragic, which would be based on folk music. But from the conceived opera The Tempest, only sketches have reached us. The composer died on August 9, 1919.