Ruggero Leoncavallo

Ruggero Leoncavallo
Leoncavallo on a 1910 postcard
Born
Ruggiero Giacomo Maria Giuseppe Emmanuele Raffaele Domenico Vincenzo Francesco Donato Leoncavallo[1]

(1857-04-23)23 April 1857
Naples, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
Died9 August 1919(1919-08-09) (aged 62)
Montecatini Terme, Kingdom of Italy
Occupation(s)Opera composer and librettist

Ruggero (or Ruggiero)[a] Leoncavallo (UK: /ˌleɪɒnkæˈvæloʊ/ LAY-on-kav-AL-oh,[4] US: /ˌleɪoʊnkəˈvɑːloʊ, -kɑːˈ-/ LAY-ohn-kə-VAH-loh, -⁠kah-,[5][6] Italian: [rudˈdʒɛːro leˌoŋkaˈvallo]; 23 April 1857 – 9 August 1919) was an Italian opera composer and librettist. Throughout his career, Leoncavallo produced numerous operas and songs but it is his 1892 opera Pagliacci that remained his lasting contribution, despite attempts to escape the shadow of his greatest success.

Today Pagliacci, continues to be his most famous opera and one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the operatic repertory. His other notable compositions include the song "Mattinata", popularized by Enrico Caruso, and the symphonic poem La Nuit de mai.

Biography

The son of Vincenzo Leoncavallo, a police magistrate and judge, Leoncavallo was born in Naples, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, on 23 April 1857.[7]

As a child, Leoncavallo moved with his father to the town of Montalto Uffugo in Calabria, where he lived during his adolescence. In 1868 he returned to Naples, where he eventually became a student at San Pietro a Majella Conservatory.[8] From 1876 to 1877 he studied literature under the famed Italian poet Giosuè Carducci[9] at the University of Bologna.[10]

In 1879, Leoncavallo's uncle Giuseppe, director of the press department at the Foreign Ministry in Egypt, suggested that his young nephew come to Cairo to showcase his pianistic abilities. Ruggero Leoncalvo arrived in Egypt shortly after the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II had deposed Khedive Ismail (June 1879) and replaced him as Khedive of Egypt with Ismail's son Tewfik Pasha. Mahmud Hamdi Pasha (1863-1921), the teenage brother of the new Khedive, appointed Ruggero Leoncavallo "as his private musician".[11] His time in Egypt concluded abruptly in mid-1882, as the British intervened in the Urabi revolt of 1879-1882 in Alexandria and Cairo led by ‘Urabi; the composer fled and travelled to France.[12] In Paris, Leoncavallo found lodging in Montmartre.

Leoncavallo's house at Montecatini Terme

An agent located in the Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis secured Leoncavallo employment as an accompanist and instructor for artists who performed in Sunday concerts mostly at cafés. In Paris, Leoncavallo met the singer Berthe Rambaud (1869–1926) who became his "preferred student"; they became partners in Paris in 1888 and married in Milan in 1895.[13][14][15] Increasingly inspired by the French romantics, particularly Alfred de Musset, Leoncavallo began work on a symphonic poem based on Musset's poetry entitled La nuit de mai. The work was completed in Paris in 1886 and premiered in April 1887 to critical acclaim. With this success, and now with enough accumulated money, in 1888 Leoncavallo moved to Milan with Rambaud.[16][17] There performances of his operas began.

Back in Italy, Leoncavallo spent some years teaching and attempting ineffectively to obtain the production of more than one opera, notably Chatterton. In 1890 he saw the enormous success of Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana and wasted no time in producing his own verismo work, Pagliacci. (According to Leoncavallo, the plot of this work had a real-life origin: he claimed it derived from a murder trial in Montalto Uffugo, over which his father had presided.)

Pagliacci was performed in Milan in 1892 with immediate success; today it is the only work by Leoncavallo in the standard operatic repertory.[18] Its most famous aria, "Vesti la giubba" ("Put on the costume" or, in the better-known older translation, "On with the motley"), was recorded by Enrico Caruso and laid claim to being the world's first record to sell a million copies (although this is probably a total of Caruso's various versions of it, made in 1902, 1904 and 1907).

The next year his I Medici was also produced in Milan, but neither it nor Chatterton (belatedly produced in 1896)—both early works—obtained much lasting favour. Much of Chatterton, however, was recorded by the Gramophone Company (later HMV) as early as 1908, and remastered on CD almost 100 years later by Marston Records. Leoncavallo himself conducts the performance or at very least supervises the production.[19]

It was not until Leoncavallo's La bohème was performed in 1897 in Venice that his talent obtained public confirmation. However, this work was outshone by Puccini's opera of the same name and on the same subject, which had been premiered by the Teatro Regio in Turin in February 1896.[20] Two tenor arias from Leoncavallo's version are still occasionally performed, especially in Italy.

Subsequent operas by Leoncavallo in the 1900s were: Zazà (the opera of Geraldine Farrar's famous 1922 farewell performance at the Metropolitan Opera), and 1904's Der Roland von Berlin. In 1906 the composer brought singers and orchestral musicians from La Scala to perform concerts of his music in New York, as well as making an extensive tour of the United States. The tour was, all in all, a qualified success.[21] He had a brief success with Zingari, which premiered in Italian in London in 1912, with a long run at the Hippodrome Theatre. Zingari also reached the United States but soon disappeared from the repertoire.[22]

After a series of operettas, Leoncavallo appeared to have tried for one last serious effort with Edipo re. It had always been assumed that Leoncavallo had finished the work but had died before he could finish the orchestration, which was completed by Giovanni Pennacchio [it]. However, with the publication of Konrad Dryden's biography of Leoncavallo[23] it was revealed that Leoncavallo may not have written the work at all (although it certainly contains themes by Leoncavallo). A review of Dryden's study notes: "That fine Edipo re ... was not even composed by [Leoncavallo]. His widow paid another composer to concoct a new opera using the music of Der Roland von Berlin. Dryden didn't find one reference to the opera in Leoncavallo's correspondence nor is there a single note by him to be found in the handwritten score."[24] Pennacchio may either have concocted the opera or have had to do more to Leoncavallo's incomplete work[25][26] to "fill in the gaps" using Leoncavallo's earlier music.[27][dead link]

Death and legacy

Leoncavallo died in Montecatini Terme, Tuscany, on 9 August 1919. His funeral was held two days later, with hundreds in attendance, including fellow composer Pietro Mascagni and longtime rival Giacomo Puccini. He was buried in the Cimitero delle Porte Sante in Florence.

70 years after his death a campaign was launched to move the composer's remains to Brissago, Switzerland, after an alleged letter written by Leoncavallo claimed to show he had desired to be buried there originally, although no such letter was ever found. Leoncavallo became an honorary citizen of Brissago and owned a lavish summer residence, Villa Myriam, in the town; in 1904 the composer had mentioned in a speech that he would not mind having a resting place in the town's Madonna di Porte cemetery, but it was never a written request in his will. Regardless the campaign to move Leoncavallo's remains moved ahead and was granted official approval by Piera Leoncavallo-Grand, the last remaining descendant of the composer; Ruggero Leoncavallo's body was exhumed on 22 September 1989 for transfer to Switzerland.[28] and burial there, alongside the remains of his wife Berthe (who had died in 1926).[29]

The Museo Leoncavallo (Leoncavallo Museum) was established in 2002 in Brissago to commemorate the composer. It includes personal items and original manuscripts on display as well as statues representing characters from his operas Zazà and Der Roland von Berlin. The Museo Ruggiero Leoncavallo in the composer's childhood home of Montalto Uffugo was opened in 2010 and also contains various manuscripts and personal items, as well as Leoncavallo's personal piano.[30]

Little from Leoncavallo's other operas is heard today, but the baritone arias from Zazà were great concert and recording favourites among baritones and Zazà as a whole is sometimes revived, as is his La bohème. The tenor arias from La bohème remain recording favorites.

Leoncavallo also composed songs, most famously "Mattinata", which he wrote for the Gramophone Company (which became HMV) with Caruso's unique voice in mind. On 8 April 1904, Leoncavallo accompanied Caruso at the piano as they recorded the song. On 8 December 1905 he recorded five of his own pieces for the reproducing piano Welte-Mignon.[31][32]

Leoncavallo wrote the libretti for most of his own operas;[33][better source needed][34] after the death in 1918 of Arrigo Boito some ranked Leoncavallo as the greatest librettist in Italy.[35] His work for other composers included a contribution to the libretto for Puccini's 1893 work Manon Lescaut.[36][37]

Operas

"Vesti la giubba"
"No! Pagliaccio non son!"
Both from Pagliacci, performed by Enrico Caruso
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Operettas

Ruggero Leoncavallo
  • La jeunesse de Figaro – 1906, United States.[where?]
  • Malbrouck – 19 January 1910, Teatro Nazionale, Rome.
  • La reginetta delle rose – 24 June 1912, Teatro Costanzi, Rome.
  • Are You There? – 1 November 1913, Prince of Wales Theatre, London.
  • La candidata – 6 February 1915, Teatro Nazionale, Rome.
  • Prestami tua moglie – 2 September 1916, Casino delle Terme, Montecatini. (English title: Lend me your wife.)
  • Goffredo Mameli – 27 April 1916, Teatro Carlo Felice, Genoa.
  • A chi la giarrettiera? – 16 October 1919, Teatro Adriano, Rome. (English title: Whose Garter Is This?) Produced after the composer's death.
  • Il primo bacio – 29 April 1923 Salone di cura, Montecatini. Produced after the composer's death.
  • La maschera nuda – 26 June 1925 Teatro Politeama, Naples. Produced after the composer's death.

Other works

Bibliography

  • Dryden, Konrad (2007). Leoncavallo: Life and Works, Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-5880-0
  • Jürgen Maehder/Lorenza Guiot (eds.), Ruggero Leoncavallo nel suo tempo. Atti del I° Convegno Internazionale di Studi su Leoncavallo a Locarno 1991, Milan (Sonzogno) 1993.
  • Jürgen Maehder/Lorenza Guiot (eds.), Letteratura, musica e teatro al tempo di Ruggero Leoncavallo. Atti del II° Convegno Internazionale di Studi su Leoncavallo a Locarno 1993, Milan (Sonzogno) 1995.
  • Jürgen Maehder/Lorenza Guiot (eds.), Nazionalismo e cosmopolitismo nell'opera tra '800 e '900. Atti del III° Convegno Internazionale di Studi su Leoncavallo a Locarno 1995, Milan (Sonzogno) 1998.
  • Jürgen Maehder/Lorenza Guiot (eds.), Tendenze della musica teatrale italiana all'inizio del Novecento. Atti del IV° Convegno Internazionale di Studi su Leoncavallo a Locarno 1998, Milan (Sonzogno) 2005.
  • Rosenthal, H. and Warrack, J. (eds.) (1979). "Leoncavallo, Ruggero", The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera, 2nd Edition, pp. 278–279. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-311321-X
  • Sadie, Stanley and Bashford, Christina (eds.) (1992). "Leoncavallo, Ruggero [Ruggiero]", The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, pp. 1148–1149. Macmillan. ISBN 0-935859-92-6

Notes

  1. ^ His first name is also spelled Ruggiero in many sources. His birth certificate lists his full name as Ruggiero Giacomo Maria Giuseppe Emmanuele Raffaele Domenico Vincenzo Francesco Donato Leoncavallo.[2] However, his tombstone spells his first name as Ruggero.[3]

References

  1. ^ "Leoncavallo". Archived from the original on 2018-05-14. Retrieved 2012-02-06.
  2. ^ Dryden (2007) pg. 4.
  3. ^ Fondazione Ruggero Leoncavallo Archived 2018-05-14 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ^ "Leoncavallo, Ruggiero". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 2021-03-08.
  5. ^ "Leoncavallo". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). HarperCollins. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  6. ^ "Leoncavallo". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  7. ^ Works referencing the established date, 23 April 1857, include The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992), p. 1148; The New Penguin Opera Guide (2001) p. 487; The Oxford Dictionary of Musical Works (2004), p. 201; Sansone, Matteo (1989) "The Verismo of Ruggero Leoncavallo: A Source Study of Pagliacci", Music & Letters, Vol. 70, No. 3 (August 1989), pp. 342–362.
  8. ^ Longobucco, Luisa (2003). "La vita e l'opera". I "Pagliacci" di Leoncavallo (in Italian). Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino Editore. p. 79. ISBN 9788849807981. Retrieved 27 June 2024. 1868 - Da Montalto Uffugo si trasferisce a Napoli. Leoncavallo frequenta il ginnasio e prosegue i suoi studi musicali privatamente, prima di entrare al Conservatorio de San Pietro a Majella, dove avrà come maestri Beniamino Cesi per il pianoforte, Michele Ruta per l'armonia, Paolo Serrao e Lauro Rossi per la composizione.
  9. ^ Brier, Sabine (8 August 2016). "Die Lieder der Komponisten der Giovane scuola italiana". Das italienische Kunstlied der Romantik. Analecta musicologica / Veröffentlichungen der Musikgeschichtlichen Abteilung des Deutschen Historischen Instituts in Rom, volume 53 (in German). Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag. p. 182. ISBN 9783761870402. Retrieved 27 June 2024. 1876 nahm er ein Literaturstudium bei Giosuè Carducci auf.
  10. ^ Balthazar, Scott L. (5 July 2013). "Leoncavallo, Ruggero". Historical Dictionary of Opera. Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts. Plymouth(Devon): Scarecrow Press. p. 192. ISBN 9780810879430. Retrieved 27 June 2024. Leoncavallo studied piano and composition in Naples (1866-76) and poetry with the Wagnerian [...] Giosuè Carducci at the University of Bologna (1876-77)
  11. ^ Hubbard, William Lines, ed. (1910). "Leoncavallo, Ruggiero. 1858-". American History and Encyclopedia of Music. Vol. 5. New York: Squire Cooley Company. p. 482. Retrieved 4 July 2024. '[...] I began my peregrinations as a concert pianist in Egypt, where at that time I had an uncle, Leoncavallo Bey, who was director of the press at the Foreign Office. There I played at court, and Mahmoud Hamdy, the brother of the Viceroy Tewfik, appointed me as his private musician. [...]'
  12. ^ Dryden, Konrad (3 February 2007). "1878-1888". Leoncavallo: Life and Works. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. p. 17. ISBN 9781461716655. Retrieved 18 July 2024. Leoncavallo's three-year Egyptian sojourn concluded abruptly during the summer of 1882, with the open revolt in Alexandria, and, later, in Cairo, led by Ahmad Arabi Pasha [...]. [...] the composer opted to leave the country at the first opportunity [... and ...] to board the British ship Propitious, which took hime to France and safety. [...] He headed for Paris [...].
  13. ^ Wagner, Hans-Joachim (16 December 2016) [1999]. Fremde Welten: Die Oper des italienischen Verismo (in German). Stuttgart: Verlag J. B. Metzler. p. 397. ISBN 9783476037688. Retrieved 25 July 2024. Leoncavallo hatte Berthe Rambaud in Paris kennengelernt. Sie war eine Sängerin, die bereits in der Provinz Erfolge erzielt hatte und sich in der Metropole auf ihr Debut an der Opéra comique vorbereiten wollte. Um ihre Stimme weiter zu schulen, nahm sie Unterricht bei Leoncavallo. Die Hochzeit der beiden fand Anfang 1888 in Paris statt.
  14. ^ Nuova rivista musicale italiana (in Italian). 24 (1–4). Edizioni rai-radiotelevisione italiana: 445. 1990 https://books.google.com/books?id=-S8KAQAAMAAJ. Leoncavallo aveva conosciuto Berthe Rambaud, originaria di Marsiglia, a Parigi, dove l'aveva sposata nel 1888; egli stesso aveva vissuto dal 1882 in rue La Trémoille [...] . {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. ^ Dryden, Konrad (3 February 2007). "1878-1888". Leoncavallo: Life and Works. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. p. 25. ISBN 9781461716655. Retrieved 25 July 2024. [...] his future wife, Marie Rose Jean. He described her as a twenty year old from Marseilles - who soon became his 'preferred student' - interested in making a debut at the Opéra-Comique. Official documents give her name as 'Marie Rose Jean,' although she is known to history as 'Berthe Rambaud,' and Leoncavallo always addressed her as 'Berthe.' The Appunti state that she became his 'companion for life' in 1888. Even if Leoncavallo's correspondence refrains from using the word 'wife,' their marriage license proves that the ceremony took place not in France, but in Milan during 1895.
  16. ^ Morini, Mario; Ostali, Nandi; Ostali, Piero (1995). Casa musicale Sonzogno: cronologie, saggi, testimonianze (in Italian). Casa musicale Sonzogno [it]. p. 347. Retrieved 1 August 2024. [...] a Parigi, dove visse da 'bohèmien' impartendo lezioni di pianoforte e suonando la sera nei caffè concerto. In seguito si trasferì a Milano con la futura moglie, la cantanta francese Berta Rambaud.
  17. ^ Dryden, Konrad (3 February 2007). Leoncavallo: Life and Works. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. pp. 28, 31. ISBN 9781461716655. Retrieved 1 August 2024. Leoncavallo [...] contacted Victor Maurel, who was preparing to create Iago in the world premiere of Otello, slated to take place at La Scala during February 1887. [...] Leoncavallo complained to Maurel that his career was not progressing, adding that he had finally completed the Medici libretto. Surprised that the composer wished to write another opera, considering that Chatterton remained unperformed, the baritone suggested Leoncavallo end his French sojourn in order to return to Italy [...] Initially skeptical, Leoncavallo hoped that he and Berthe could survive by giving music lessons. They sold their few belongings and left for Milan [...]. [...] Returning to Milan and a rented home on Via Cappuccini 17 with Berthe and Jeanne during the winter of 1888, Leoncavallo was introduced to Giulio Ricordi [...].
  18. ^ Stanley Sadie and Christina Bashford (eds.), 1992, pg. 1148.
  19. ^ Stephen R. Clark (2004) The Leoncavallo Recordings 1907/1908: Chatterton Archived 15 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Marston Records.
  20. ^ Budden, Julian (2005) [2002]. "Appendix B: List of Works". Puccini: His Life and Works. The Master Musicians. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 494. ISBN 9780195179743. Retrieved 7 August 2024. La bohème, [...] Teatro Regio, Turin, 1 February 1896
  21. ^ James Greening-Valenzuela (2011) Ruggero Leoncavallo in New York and other American cities: 1906 and 1913.
  22. ^ See ForumOpera Archived 2007-10-26 at the Wayback Machine for a review of a modern recording of Zingari and a musical analysis (in French).
  23. ^ Dryden (2007) [page needed]
  24. ^ "Untitled Document".
  25. ^ Schoell, William (24 January 2015) [2006]. "Sex and Violence: Italy, 1900-1950". The Opera of the Twentieth Century: A Passionate Art in Transition. Fefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. p. 38. ISBN 9781476605562. Retrieved 15 August 2024. Leoncavallo had died before completing [Edipo Re]; it was finished by G. Pennacchio.
  26. ^ Guiot, Lorenza; Maehder, Jürgen, eds. (2005). Tendenze della musica teatrale italiana all'inizio del Novecento: atti del 4o Convegno internazionale "Ruggero Leoncavallo nel suo tempo" : Locarno, Biblioteca cantonale, 23-24 maggio 1998. Volume 4 of Atti del ... Convegno Internazionale "Ruggero Leoncavallo del Suo Tempo", Convegno Internazionale di Studi su Ruggero Leoncavallo (in Italian). Milan: Sonzogno. p. 136. ISBN 9788887318258. Retrieved 16 August 2024. Leoncavallo, morendo, lasciò incompiuta un'opera in un atto Edipo Re su libretto di G. Forzano. [...] Il maestro Giovanni Pennacchio [...] ha completato, per disposizione del defunto Leoncavallo, l'Edipo [...].
  27. ^ Chillemi, Carmelo "Giovanni Pennacchio"' (in Italian).
  28. ^ Compare: Dryden, Konrad (3 February 2007). "1878-1888". Leoncavallo: Life and Works. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. p. 181. ISBN 9781461716655. Retrieved 22 August 2024. The idea of moving Leoncavallo's remains sparked great controversy [...] The approval of a Leoncavallo relative was sought and received on 22 September 1989, [...] when Piera Leoncavallo-Grand, Giuseppe Leoncavallo's descendant, began legal proceedings to have the body exhumed, stating that she was acting on behalf of the composer and his relatives, a decision she would later deeply regret. [...] Leoncavallo's remains were placed in a zinc box that were[sic] driven to Brissago the same day.
  29. ^ Fohrer, Eberhard; Schmid, Marcus X. (26 May 2023). "Brissago". Lago Maggiore. Reiseführer (in German). Erlangen: Michael Müller Verlag. ISBN 9783966852166. Retrieved 22 August 2024. Erst 1989 entsprach man seinen Wunsch und überführte seine sterblichen Reste nach Brissago [...]. [...] Chiesa Madonna di Ponte: [...] Unter dem kleinen Portikus gegenueber dem Eingang hat [...] der Opernkomponist Ruggero Leoncavallo mitsamt Gattin Berthe seine letzte Ruhe gefunden [...].
  30. ^ "Museo Ruggiero Leoncavallo – Museo Ruggiero Leoncavallo".
  31. ^ Gerhard Dangel und Hans-W. Schmitz: Welte-Mignon Reproductions. Complete Library Of Recordings For The Welte-Mignon Reproducing Piano 1905–1932. Stuttgart 2006; ISBN 3-00-017110-X, pp. 49, 518.
  32. ^ "TACET Musikproduktion - english".
  33. ^ "Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857-1919)". Mahler Foundation. Retrieved 29 August 2024. Another clue to demonstrate that Leoncavallo had no or little part in Edipo re is that unusually, in fact exceptionally, Leoncavallo did not write the libretto. The libretto for Edipo re was written by Giovacchino Forzano [...]. [...]
  34. ^ Exceptions include La candidata, Maïa, Malbruk, Mameli (in part), and Prestami tua moglie - see: Dryden, Konrad (3 February 2007). "Appendix: The Leoncavallo Opus". Leoncavallo: Life and Works. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. pp. 321ff. ISBN 9781461716655. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  35. ^ "Vesti la giubba/Mattinata". Mark Steyn Enterprises (US) Inc. 4 August 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2024. Leoncavallo was a composer and librettist, and more admired as the latter than the former: by 1919, after the death the year before of Arrigo Boito (Verdi's Otello and Falstaff, Ponchielli's La Gioconda), Signor Leoncavallo was regarded as Italy's greatest librettist.
  36. ^ Fisher, Burton D., ed. (2000). "Puccini ............ and Manon Lescaut". Giacomo Puccini: Manon Lescaut. Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series. Opera Journeys Publishing. ISBN 9781930841093. Retrieved 5 September 2024. [...] Manon Lescaut (1893). The genesis of the opera's libretto was itself a melodrama that was saturated with feuds and disagreements between its considerable group of librettists, who included Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Luigi Mica, Giuseppe Giacosa, Domenico Oliva, Marco Praga, and even Giulio Ricordi himself.
  37. ^ "Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857-1919)". Mahler Foundation. 2015-01-06. Retrieved 2022-11-13. Among Leoncavallo's libretti for other composers is his contribution to the libretto for Puccini's Manon Lescaut.
  38. ^ See Le Opere di Leoncavallo, Fondazione Leoncavallo (in Italian)
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