Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Prologue Pagliacci

#dmitrihvorostovsky Composer: Ruggero Leoncavallo Piano: Mikhail Arkadev Leoncavallo had completed I Pagliacci (The Clowns that made him famous overnight, achieving such a success that his 20 other works for the stage are all but unknown in comparison. By the end of 1893, I Pagliacci had played everywhere from Mexico to Europe. The text of I Pagliacci, by the composer, is based on one of the cases encountered by Leoncavallo’s father, a police magistrate in Naples. The actual case concerned a middle-aged actor who murdered his unfaithful wife, to which Leoncavallo added elements from the commedia dell’arte, such as the traveling actors, and naturalist ideas. The opera premiered at the Teatro dal Verme in Milan, on May 21, 1892. Consisting of a Prologue and two acts, I Pagliacci is a short opera. Leoncavallo initially cast the entire drama in a Prologue and one act, but the ecstatic reception of climactic aria “Vesti la giubba“ (Put on your costume) prompted the composer