Ruggero (or Ruggiero) Leoncavallo (23 April 18579 August 1919) was an Italian
opera
Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and def ...
and
librettist
A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major ...
. Throughout his career, Leoncavallo produced numerous operas and songs but it is his 1892 opera ''
Pagliacci
''Pagliacci'' (; literal translation, 'Clowns') is an Italian opera in a prologue and two acts, with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. The opera tells the tale of Canio, actor and leader of a commedia dell'arte theatrical company, who mu ...
'' 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, to a lesser extent, his version of ''
La bohème
''La bohème'' ( , ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '':wikt:quadro, quadri'', ''wikt:tableau, tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto b ...
'' which, however, was overshadowed by Puccini's highly successful
opera of the same name.
Biography
The son of Vincenzo Leoncavallo, a police
magistrate
The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...
and judge, Leoncavallo was born in
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
,
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies () was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1861 under the control of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, Bourbons. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by popula ...
, on 23 April 1857.
As a child, Leoncavallo moved with his father to the town of
Montalto Uffugo in
Calabria
Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...
, where he lived during his adolescence. In 1868 he returned to Naples, where he eventually became a student at
San Pietro a Majella Conservatory. From 1876 to 1877 he studied literature under the famed Italian poet
Giosuè Carducci at the
University of Bologna
The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...
. He also lived in
Potenza, since 1876 until 1878.
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 Leoncavallo 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". His time in Egypt concluded abruptly in mid-1882, as the British
intervened in the
Urabi revolt of 1879–1882 in
Alexandria
Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
and Cairo led by
Ahmed Urabi; the composer fled and travelled to France. In Paris, Leoncavallo found lodging in
Montmartre
Montmartre ( , , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement of Paris, 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Rive Droite, Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for its a ...
.
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. 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.
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
''Pagliacci'' (; literal translation, 'Clowns') is an Italian opera in a prologue and two acts, with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. The opera tells the tale of Canio, actor and leader of a commedia dell'arte theatrical company, who mu ...
''. (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. 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
His Master's Voice
His Master's Voice is an entertainment trademark featuring a dog named Nipper, curiously peering into the horn of a wind-up gramophone. Painted by Francis Barraud in 1898, the image has since become a global symbol used across consumer elect ...
) 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.
It was not until Leoncavallo's ''
La bohème
''La bohème'' ( , ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '':wikt:quadro, quadri'', ''wikt:tableau, tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto b ...
'' 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. 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
The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...
), 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. 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.
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
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...
, which was completed by . However, with the publication of
Konrad Dryden's biography of Leoncavallo 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
eoncavallo 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." Pennacchio may either have concocted the opera or have had to do more to Leoncavallo's incomplete work to "fill in the gaps" using Leoncavallo's earlier music.
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
Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for List of compositions by Giacomo Puccini#Operas, his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he ...
. 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. and burial there, alongside the remains of his wife Berthe (who had died in 1926).
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.
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
His Master's Voice
His Master's Voice is an entertainment trademark featuring a dog named Nipper, curiously peering into the horn of a wind-up gramophone. Painted by Francis Barraud in 1898, the image has since become a global symbol used across consumer elect ...
) 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.
[Gerhard Dangel und Hans-W. Schmitz: ''Welte-Mignon Reproductions. Complete Library Of Recordings For The Welte-Mignon Reproducing Piano 1905–1932''. Stuttgart 2006; , pp. 49, 518.]
Leoncavallo wrote the libretti for most of his own operas; after the death in 1918 of
Arrigo Boito some ranked Leoncavallo as the greatest librettist in Italy. His work for other composers included a contribution to the libretto for Puccini's 1893 work
''Manon Lescaut''.
Operas
* ''
Pagliacci
''Pagliacci'' (; literal translation, 'Clowns') is an Italian opera in a prologue and two acts, with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. The opera tells the tale of Canio, actor and leader of a commedia dell'arte theatrical company, who mu ...
'' – 21 May 1892,
Teatro Dal Verme, Milan.
*''
I Medici'' – 9 November 1893, Teatro Dal Verme, Milan). (The first part of the uncompleted trilogy, ''Crepusculum''.)
*''
Chatterton'' – 10 March 1896,
Teatro Argentina
The Teatro Argentina (directly translating to "Theatre Argentina") is an opera house and theatre located in Largo di Torre Argentina, a square in Rome, Italy. One of the oldest theatres in Rome, it was constructed in 1731 and inaugurated on 31 ...
, Rome. (Revision of a work written in 1876.)
*''
La bohème
''La bohème'' ( , ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '':wikt:quadro, quadri'', ''wikt:tableau, tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto b ...
'' – 6 May 1897,
Teatro La Fenice
Teatro La Fenice (; "The Phoenix (mythology), Phoenix Theatre") is a historic opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre" and in the history of opera as a whole. Especial ...
, Venice.
*''
Zazà'' – 10 November 1900,
Teatro Lirico, Milan.
*''
Der Roland von Berlin'' – 13 December 1904,
Königliches Opernhaus,
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
.
*''Maïa'' – 15 January 1910,
Teatro Costanzi, Rome.
*''
Zingari'' – 16 September 1912,
Hippodrome
Hippodrome is a term sometimes used for public entertainment venues of various types. A modern example is the Hippodrome which opened in London in 1900 "combining circus, hippodrome, and stage performances".
The term hippodroming refers to fr ...
, London.
*''Mimi Pinson'' – 1913,
Teatro Massimo, Palermo. (Revision of ''La bohème''.)
*''Mameli'' (about
Goffredo Mameli) – 27 April 1916,
Teatro Carlo Felice, Genoa. (Note that the ''Fondazione Leoncavallo'' classes this as an opera rather than an operetta.)
*''
Edipo re'' – 13 December 1920,
Chicago Opera. (Produced after the composer's death, at very least orchestration not by Leoncavallo, completed or perhaps composed by Giovanni Pennacchio.)
Operettas

*''La jeunesse de Figaro'' – 1906, New York.
"Ruggero Leoncavallo"
José Darío Innella;
Facsimile
*''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
Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
.
* ''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
*''La nuit de mai'' – ''poème symphonique'' for tenor and orchestra after Alfred de Musset, Paris 1886 (also performed and recorded in 1990 and – with Plácido Domingo – in 2010)
*''Séraphitus Séraphita'' – '' Poema Sinfonico'' after Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly ; ; born Honoré Balzac; 20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence ''La Comédie humaine'', which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is ...
, Teatro al la Scala, Milan 1894
Notes and references
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
*
Further reading
* 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.
* Rosenthal, H. and Warrack, J. (eds.) (1979). "Leoncavallo, Ruggero", ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', 2nd ed., pp. 278–279. Oxford University Press.
External links
Festival Leoncavallo Montalto Uffugo
Fondazione Ruggero Leoncavallo
Festival Di Francoforte, 10 September 2003 (Bruson, Giacomini, et al., Cond.Viotti)
''Zingari'' in Philadelphia
(Chicago Opera Company, 1912)
*
*
*
*
*
Brissago
Fondo Leoncavallo
Locarno
Locarno (; ; Ticinese dialect, Ticinese: ; formerly in ) is a southern Switzerland, Swiss List of towns in Switzerland, town and Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district Locarno (district), Locarno (of which it is the capita ...
''La Candidata'' – operetta in 3 atti e 4 quadri
1915 publication, Italian – via Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leoncavallo, Ruggero
1857 births
1919 deaths
19th-century Italian classical composers
19th-century Italian male musicians
20th-century Italian classical composers
20th-century male composers
20th-century Italian male musicians
Italian opera composers
Italian Romantic composers
Italian male opera composers
Composers from Naples