Ruggero Leoncavallo

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Ruggero Leoncavallo

Ruggero Leoncavallo (born April 23, 1857 in Naples , † August 9, 1919 in Montecatini Terme ) was an Italian composer and librettist . He became world famous for his veristic opera Pagliacci ( The Bajazzo ).

Life

Ruggero Leoncavallo on December 8, 1905 recording for Welte-Mignon

Leoncavallo was born the son of a judge in Naples and lived as a child with his family in the Calabrian town of Montalto Uffugo for a few years . After his father was reassigned to Naples as a judge, the family returned there. At the age of eight he was enrolled as an external student at the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella . His teachers were the pianist Benjamino Cesi (1845–1907), in harmony Michele Ruta, as in composition Paolo Serrao and Lauro Rossi . From 1882 to 1886 he lived in Paris, where the symphonic poem La nuit de mai was written. After a few years as a teacher and unsuccessful attempts to bring several operas to the stage, he witnessed the great success of Pietro Mascagni's opera Cavalleria rusticana in 1890 . He then composed his own verismo opera, Pagliacci , the plot of which goes back to a murder he witnessed in Calabria. It premiered in Milan in 1892 and was an instant hit; it is his only work that is still part of the standard operatic repertoire today.

In the following year his opera I Medici was also produced in Milan, but neither this nor Chatterton (1896) - both operas from his early work - gained the favor of the public, which he only succeeded in doing again with the performance of La Bohème in Venice in 1897. Two tenor arias from this opera are still sung occasionally, especially in Italy. Other operas were Zazà (1900), Der Roland von Berlin (1904) and Zingari ( Gypsy , 1912), but these are no longer performed (apart from the baritone aria from Zazà ). The opera Der Roland von Berlin ( Il Rolando di Berlino ) wrote Leoncavallo on behalf of the German Emperor, it was premiered in Berlin. Leoncavallo is considered by many to be the greatest Italian librettist of his time after Arrigo Boito .

On April 8, 1904, he played for Gramophone & Typewriter Ltd. Mattinata , composed especially for this purpose, accompanied Enrico Caruso , who would soon become the most important interpreter of the Canio from Pagliacci , on the piano. On December 8, 1905 he played for the reproduction piano Welte-Mignon six own pieces as a pianist piano roll one.

His first grave was in Florence, but today it is in the portico in front of the Madonna di Ponte church in Brissago (Switzerland). The Ruggero Leoncavallo museum, dedicated to his life and work, is also located in Brissago.

Works

  • Requiem unfinished

Operas

  • Pagliacci , libretto: Ruggero Leoncavallo , first performance on May 21, 1892 at the Dal Verme Theater in Milan
  • I Medici, libretto: Ruggero Leoncavallo, first performance on November 6, 1893 at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan. The opera is set at the court of Lorenzo de Medici in Florence.
  • Chatterton, libretto: Ruggero Leoncavallo, first performance on March 10, 1896 at the Teatro Argentina in Rome. The opera is a free adaptation of the life story of the English poet Thomas Chatterton .
  • La Bohème , libretto: Ruggero Leoncavallo, first performance on May 6, 1897 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. The opera is based on the novel Les scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger .
  • Zazà , libretto: Ruggero Leoncavallo, first performance on May 6, 1897 at the Teatro Lirico in Milan. The opera is based on the play of the same name by Pierre Berton and Charles Simon .
  • Der Roland von Berlin , libretto: Ruggero Leoncavallo, world premiere on December 13, 1904 in the Berlin State Opera . The opera is based on the historical novel of the same name by Willibald Alexis from 1840.
  • Maia, libretto: Paul de Choudens , first performance on January 15, 1910 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Pietro Mascagni conducted the premiere .
  • Zingari, libretto: Enrico Cavacchioli (1885–1955) and Guglielmo Emanuel (1879–1965). First performance on September 16, 1912 at the Hippodrome in London. The opera is based on the verse tale Die Zigeuner (1825/1827) by Alexander Pushkin .
  • Mimi Pinson, first performed in 1913 at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo. The work is an arrangement of his opera La Bohème .
  • (Goffredo) Mameli, libretto: Ruggero Leoncavallo and Gultiero Belvederi, first performance on April 27, 1916 at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa.
  • Edipo Re, libretto: Giovacchino Forzano , premiered posthumously on December 13, 1920 at the L in Chicago. The work was probably completed and orchestrated by Giovanni Pennacchio (1878–1978). It is based on the tragedy of King Oedipus by Sophocles .

Operettas

  • La jeunesse de Figaro (After Konrad Dryden , the work was never completed.)
  • Malbruk, libretto: Angelo Nessi , first performance on January 20, 1910 at the Teatro Nazionale in Rome. The plot is based on a novella from the Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio . Conductor of the world premiere: Pompeo Ricchieri. Cast for the premiere: Elodia Maresca (Alba), Ferruccio Corradetti (Malbruk), Giuseppe Pasquini (Arnolfo)
  • La reginetta delle rose , libretto: Giovacchino Forzano, world premiere on June 24, 1912 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, German premiere at the Erfurt Theater in 2008
  • Are you there? Libretto: Albert de Courville, Edgar Wallace. First performance on November 1, 1913 at the Prince of Wales Theater, London.
  • La candidata, libretto: Giovacchino Forzano, first performance on February 6, 1913 at the Teatro Nazionale in Rome.
  • Prestami tua moglie, libretto: Edmondo Corradi (1873–1931), first performance on December 2, 1916 at the Teatro del Casinò in Montecatini Terme .
  • A chi la giarrettiera? Libretto: Edmondo Corradi, first performed in 1919 at the Teatro del Casinò in Montecatini Terme. People: Tilde (soprano), Adriano (tenor), Raimondetta (soprano), Leopoldo (bass), Celestino (tenor), Eulalia (soprano), Viscount Faucon (baritone). Place and time of the action: Paris, 1918 (then: present)
  • Il primo bacio, libretto: Luigi Bonelli, premiered posthumously on April 29, 1923 at the Teatro del Casinò in Montecatini Terme.
  • La maschera nuda, libretto: Fernando Poilieri and Luigi Bonelli, premiere posthumously 1925

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Konrad Dryden: Ruggero Leoncavallo. Life and Works . Scarecrow Press, Plymout / Lanham, Md./Toronto 2007, ISBN 978-0-8108-5873-2 , pp. 1 ff . (English).
  2. Gerhard Dangel and Hans-W. Schmitz: Welte-Mignon -Reproduktionen / Welte-Mignon Reproductions. Complete catalog of recordings for the Welte-Mignon Reproducing Piano 1905–1932 / Complete Library Of Recordings For The Welte-Mignon Reproducing Piano 1905–1932 . Stuttgart 2006. ISBN 3-00-017110-X . P. 49, p. 518
  3. ^ Ruggero Leoncavallo Museum
  4. The Requiem, which Leoncavallo has handed down only in fragments, was almost completely reconstructed by József Ács after extensive study of all works. He published it in the music publisher musica-con-spirito-edition. The world premiere took place in 2009 in Brissago / Switzerland, where Leoncavallo worked for many years of his life.
  5. ^ Konrad Dryden: Ruggero Leoncavallo. Life and Works . Scarecrow Press, Plymouth / Lanham, Md./Toronto 2007, ISBN 978-0-8108-5873-2 , pp. 98 ff . (English).