Autograph musical quotation signed ("R. Leoncavallo") from the composer's opera, Pagliacci
2 measures in 2/4 time. With "Pagliacci" at upper right and text "Ridi Pagliaccio" below quotation in Leoncavallo's autograph. Dated "Wien, 22. Novembre 1893." Notated in black ink on an album leaf 190 x 128 mm.
Slightly worn and browned; very small chip to blank upper outer corner.
Pagliacci, in a prologue and two acts by Leoncavallo to his own libretto, was first performed in Milan at the Teatro Dal Verme on 21 May 1892. The present quotation is dated less than a year from the premiere of the work.
"Pagliacci takes the technique of verismo to its limits. Leoncavallo’s patient reconstruction of his subject is necessarily less immediate than Mascagni’s, but he gained from his study of precedents a refinement of detail, a more significant and shrewd use of orchestration, and a more original and expressive harmony. Hanslick rightly defined Leoncavallo as a less original but better musician than Mascagni. A continuity with the late works of Verdi can be found in the transformation of a peaceful strolling player into a truculent and violent man. The difference lies in the moral perspective: Otello degrades himself by murder, but Canio recovers his dignity. Leoncavallo understood the connection between social values and the market for entertainment. While its effect is perhaps obvious and at times over-emphatic, it is a necessary and original feature of the opera, whose vitality is still applauded by audiences all over the world." Michele Girardi in Grove Music Online.
Item #39446
Price: $850.00 other currencies