DownWithTyranny!: Sunday Classics: On our way to focusing on Nedda's scenes with the two baritones of Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci"

Daniel Sutin as Tonio the clown in Austin, 2012

PROLOGUE (sung by the performance's Tonio) -- conclusion:
And you, rather than our poor
actors' costumes, consider
our souls, because we are people,
of flesh and bone, and since in this orphan
world, just like you, we breathe the air!

I've told you the concept.
Now hear how it worked out.
Let's go -- begin!

Leonard Warren (b), Tonio; RCA Victor Orchestra, Renato Cellini, cond. RCA-EMI, recorded January 1953

Giuseppe Taddei (b), Tonio; Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Herbert von Karajan, cond. DG, recorded Sept.-Oct. 1965

by Ken

The recordings by leonard Warren and Giuseppe Taddei are the ones we heard in the September 2010 post "The Prologue to Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci entreats, 'Consider our souls' " when we broke the Prologue down into chunks, culminating in this one. We should probably note that the high notes -- on "al pari di voi" ("just like you") and "incominciate!" ("begin!") -- aren't Leoncavallo's, but the music sounds pretty flat without them, and I can't imagine he would complain about the effect that Leonard Warren in particular achieves with them.

I was tempted to repeat that Prologue breakdown here, but especially now that I've imported it that series of posts into the stand-alone "Sunday Classics" blog, it's readily available via click-through. But I don't want to venture into the opera again without hearing the whole of the Prologue, so let's do that.

THE COMPLETE PAGLIACCI PROLOGUE

In the 2010 Pagliacci Prologue post, in addition to the component-parts performances by Leonard Warren and Giuseppe Taddei we heard a terrific 1935 performance by the Met's mainstay of the Italian-baritone repertory of them time, Lawrence Tibbett, the 1960 stereo one by Tito Gobbi, and an interesting if not quite idiomatic one by the German baritone Bernd Weikl. Today I thought we'd hear the 1953 Warren performance put back together along with an earlier recording of the Prologue by Warren, Tibbett's Met successor, and one by Warren's successor, Robert Merrill; Gobbi's 1960 recording again, now preceded by his 1054 one; and finally an unrelated pair, Apollo Granforte's from the 1929 HMV Pagliacci and the great baritone Pavel Lisitsian's from the c1956 Russian recording (in which Lisitsian actually sang Silvio rather than Tonio).

The action takes place in Calabria, near Montalto, on the feast of the Assumption in the late 1860s. During the Prelude, TONIO, the clown, pokes his head through the curtains to ask the audience for permission to speak, then advances to the front of the stage, announcing that he is the Prologue.

If I may? If I may?
Ladies! Gentlemen!
Excuse me if I present myself thus alone.
I am the Prologue.
Because the author is putting
the old-style masks
onstage again.
In part he wants to revive
the old customs, and to you
once again he sends me.

But not to tell you, as before,
"The tears that we shed are false,
by our agonies and our suffering
don't be alarmed."
No! No!
The author has sought
to paint truly for you
a slice of life.
He has for maxim only that the artist is a person,
and that he must write for people,
and draw inspiration from what's true.

A nest of memories in the depths of his soul
sang one day, and with real tears
he wrote, and his sobs beat time for him!

So then, you'll see loving, yes, the way
real human beings love; you'll see hate's
sad fruits, miseries' agonies.
Cries of rage you'll hear, and cynical laughter!

And you, rather than our poor
actors' costumes, consider
our souls, because we are people,
of flesh and bone, and since in this orphan
world, just like you, we breathe the air!

I've told you the concept.
Now hear how it worked out.
Let's go -- begin!

Tito Gobbi (b), Tonio; Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Tullio Serafin, cond. EMI, recorded June 12-17, 1954

Tito Gobbi (b), Tonio; Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Lovro von Matačić, cond. EMI, recorded 1961

[abridged orchestral introduction] Leonard Warren (b), Tonio; RCA VIctor Orchestra, Frieder Weissmann, cond. RCA, recorded 1946

Leonard Warren (b), Tonio; RCA Victor Orchestra, Renato Cellini, cond. RCA-EMI, recorded Jan. 10-29, 1953

Robert Merrill (b), Tonio; Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Rome), Lamberto Gardellli, cond. Decca, recorded 1967

Apollo Granforte (b), Tonio; Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Carlo Sabajno, cond. EMI, recorded 1929

[in Russian] Pavel Lisitsian (b), Silvio and Prologue; Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Samuel Samosud, cond. Melodiya, recorded c1956

IN THE 2010 PAGLIACCI PROLOGUE POST, WE SAW THIS
CLIP OF THE OPERA'S OPENING, WITH THIS CAPTION

Juan Pons as Tonio lip-syncs the Pagliacci Prologue in Unitel's 1982 film directed by Franco Zeffirelli, with Georges Prêtre conducting the La Scala orchestra. (Ignore the other clowns Zeffirelli's inserted, mere distractions.) We even get to see the traveling players arrive in the Calabrian village, with Plácido Domingo as the master of the troupe, Canio, and Teresa Stratas as his wife and costar, Nedda.

NOW WE ZERO IN ON OUR CENTRAL COUPLE, THE
TROUPE DIRECTOR CANIO AND COMÉDIENNE NEDDA

First we focus on Canio, hearing his charismatic entrance into this entertainment-starved Calabrian village and the surprisingly personal glimpse we get of the inner Canio.

LEONCAVALLO: I Pagliacci: Act I, Canio, "Un grande spettacolo a 23 ore" ("A grand spectacle at 11pm") . . . "Un tal gioco" ("Such a game")

CANIO: A grand spectacle at 23 hours (11pm)
your good humble servant is preparing!
You'll see the frenzy of honest Pagliaccio,
and how he avenges himself
and lays a fine trap.
You'll see Tonio's carcass shaking,
and what kind of a web of intrigue he'll spin.
Come and do us the honor, ladies and gentlemen,
at 23 hours, at 23 hours!
VILLAGERS [their utterance punctuated by laughter]:
We'll come, and you save us your good humor!
At 23 hours!
CANIO: At 23 hours!
VILLAGERS: At 23 hours!
[TONIO comes forward to help NEDDA down from the cart, but CANIO is already there.]
CANIO [giving TONIO a clip on the ear and shouting]: Get out of there!
VILLAGERS [laughting]: Ah! Ah! Ah!
WOMEN: Take that, you handsome gallant!
BOYS: With best wishes!
TONIO [shakes his fist at the boys, who run off grumbling]: Go away! Go away!
[Aside, as he goes out] You'll pay for this! Brigand!
1st VILLAGER [to CANIO]: Say, would you like to take a glass with us at the crossroads?
Say, would you?
CANIO: With pleasure.
BEPPE [entering the booth to change]: Wait for me . . . I'll come too!
CANIO [shouting]: Say, Tonio, are you coming along?
TONIO [offstage]: I'm cleaning the donkey! Go ahead!
2nd VILLAGER [jokingly]: Look out, Pagliaccio, he only wants to stay
to pay court to Nedda!
CANIO: Hey, hey . . . you think so?
Such a game, believe me,
it's better not to play
with me, my friends, and that goes
for Tonio, and a bit for all of you too!
The theater and life are not the same thing!
No, they're not the same thing!
[Pointing to the stage] And if up there
Pagliaccio should surprise his wife
with a gallant lover, he gives a comic sermon,
then calms down or submits to being thrashed!
And laughing heartily the public applauds!
But if I were really to catch Nedda,
the tale would have a different ending,
as sure as I'm standing here!
Such a game, believe me, it's better not to play!
NEDDA [aside]: I'm befuddled!
VILLAGERS [to CANIO]: Did you take it
seriously then?
CANIO: Me? You think so? Excuse me!
I adore my wife!

-- English translation by Peggie Cochrane

Jussi Bjoerling (t), Canio; Leonard Warren (b), Tonio; George Cehanovsky (b), 1st Villager; Paul Franke (t), Beppe; Richard Wright (t), 2nd Villager; Victoria de los Angeles (s), Nedda; Robert Shaw Chorale, RCA Victor Orchestra, Renato Cellini, cond. RCA-EMI, recorded Jan. 10-29, 1953

Giuseppe di Stefano (t), Canio; Tito Gobbi (b), Tonio; Nicola Monti (t), Beppe; Maria Callas (s), Nedda; two Villagers unidentified; Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Tullio Serafin, cond. EMI, recorded June 12-17, 1954

Franco Corelli (t), Canio; Tito Gobbi (b), Tonio; Franco Piva (b), 1st Villager; Mario Spina (t), Beppe; Angelo Mercuriali (t), 2nd Villager; Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Lovro von Matačić, cond. EMI, recorded 1960

Now we hear the inner Nedda, as her husband and the others head off to share a drink in town, leaving her (almost) alone.

LEONCAVALLO: I Pagliacci: Act I, Recitative, Nedda, "Quel fiamma avea nel guardo" ("How his eyes did blaze") . . . Ballatella, "Stridono lassù" ("They scream away up there")

During the Bell Chorus, the villagers and the rest of the troupe have left, leaving NEDDA (almost) alone.

NEDDA: Recitative
How his eyes did blaze! I turned mine
away for fear he should read
my secret thought!
Oh, if he should catch me,
brutal as he is! But enough,
these are frightening nightmares and silly francies!

Oh, what a beautiful mid-August sun!
I'm brimful of life
and all languishing
with mysterious desire -- I don't know what I wish!
Oh, how the birds fly up, and what a screaming!
What are they asking? Where are they going? Who knows?
My mother, who used to tell fortunes,
understood their song,
and to me as a child she would sing:
Ah! Ah!

Ballatella
They scream away up there to their hearts' content,
hurled into flight like arrows, the birds.
They defy the clouds and the fierce sun,
and go about the paths of the sky.
Let them roam the air,
these creatures thirsty for blue skies and bright splendor!
They too follow a dream, a mirage
and soar among the gilded clouds!
Wind may pursue and storm bray,
with wings outspread, they can defy all;
rain, the lightning flash, nothing ever stops them,
and they soar above the abyss and the sea.
They fly far off there to a strange country
of which perhaps they dream, and seek in vain.
But the gypsies of the sky follow the mysterious power
that drives them on, and go! And go! And go!

-- English translation (mostly) by Peggie Cochrane

Victoria de los Angeles (s), Nedda; RCA Victor Orchestra, Renato Cellini, cond. RCA-EMI, recorded Jan. 10-29, 1953

Maria Callas (s), Nedda; Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Tullio Serafin, cond. EMI, recorded June 12-17, 1954

Teresa Stratas (s), Nedda; Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Georges Prêtre, cond. Philips, recorded 1983

COMING SOON: FOCUS ON NEDDA

We're ready now to proceed to Nedda's unexpected scenes with Tonio the clown and a handsome local man.

UPDATE: FOR MORE ON NEDDA AND I PAGLIACCI --

Go to "Preview: 'He said, she said' in the opening scenes of I Pagliacci" and "Leoncavallo's Pagliacci and the woman who understood the birds' song."